


A Curse Marked Fate

by Alaena_F_Dragonstar



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Curses, Friendship, M/M, Modern Fantasy, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28073967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alaena_F_Dragonstar/pseuds/Alaena_F_Dragonstar
Summary: Their story began in Beika Park during the longest and shortest summer of Shinichi's life. And it grew around friendship, secrets, magic, and a curse. The thing about fate is that no one can really say for sure what is or isn't meant to be. KaiShin
Relationships: Kudou Shinichi | Edogawa Conan/Kuroba Kaito | Kaitou Kid
Comments: 13
Kudos: 100





	1. A Summer Dream

**Author's Note:**

> This story is cross-posted on FF.Net [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13769013/1/A-Curse-Marked-Fate).

It was the longest and shortest summer of his life.

It began, however, like any other summer would have with the spring chill melting into long, sun-drenched days that swam by in dreamy tranquility. The day that all changed began, like many of Kudo Shinichi's days, with a book.

To be more specific, it was the newest book written by his father, Kudo Yuusaku, and it had not yet technically been published. One perk of being the son of an author, however, was that Shinichi could, if he wanted to, get his father's newest books before they were officially put on the shelves for the general public. At eight years old, this was an exciting privilege—one of the only privileges in his life that Shinichi truly enjoyed even though, deep down, he knew he was being ungrateful. After all, most other children he knew would be thrilled if their parents let them go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted unsupervised. Most of those same children envied the fact that his parents never hesitated to buy him the books or puzzles he wanted, and they thought him strange because he didn't take advantage of the fact that his parents wouldn't mind if he ate more sweets. It was just that those same children who thought he had everything actually got to see their parents every day. Their parents viewed them as the children they were. They worried about them and looked out for them and tried to teach them about the world. But he was getting sidetracked, wasn't he?

Shinichi had stopped wondering what it would be like to have parents who behaved like parents when he was six.

The point was that this day, this peaceful, warm summer day, began with the arrival of the new book on Shinichi's desk. When his father had delivered it, Shinichi didn't know, but he had long since decided that such things were trivial. What mattered was that the book was there and that the weather outside was splendid. Therefore, book in hand, he had dropped by the kitchen to make himself two sandwiches—one ham and cheese and the other peanut butter and jelly—then packed both the sandwiches, a water bottle, and his book into a small backpack before he headed out the door, making sure to lock it behind himself.

He never once saw his parents on his way out. But that was just the way things went at the Kudo house.

He had wandered then down through the streets until he reached the lightly forested grounds of Beika Park.

Though not a large park, it couldn't be called small either, and the city had made sure to keep it well tended. It sported several stretches of lush, green lawn upon which families could picnic or children could play ball. There were small groves of trees beneath which tired parents and guardians could take shelter on long benches away from the sun and rest their weary feet. Shinichi's favorite part of the park, however, was a small but almost perfectly circular lake ringed by trees. Shinichi had spent many a long hour reading on its grassy banks.

And so here he was again.

Picking a spot under the largest tree growing along the lakeshore, Shinichi sat down and opened his book.

"Hey, you there!"

Starting in surprise at the shout, Shinichi glanced around. Seeing no one, he frowned. "Hello?"

"Up here!"

Tilting his head back, he searched the spreading boughs over his head. Spotting a splash of color, he squinted. There, high up amidst the branches, was a boy about his age. Blue eyes widened. The stranger was hanging from a branch with one hand. It looked like he would fall at any moment.

"That's dangerous!" he called up, scrambling to his feet.

The stranger actually laughed. "I know that."

"Then you should come down or at least use both hands," Shinichi retorted, wondering what was wrong with the stranger. Unless he was stuck?

"Do you need help?"

The stranger waved away his concerned inquiry with a most inappropriate laugh. "Nah. I got this."

That said, he traced a sign in the air with his free hand then pointed down towards his own dangling toes. Shinichi started in surprise when threads of golden light traced a magic circle in the air just below the strange boy's feet. The moment it was complete, the boy let go of the branch and landed lightly on the spell circle. Shinichi lurched backward, half expecting the stranger to continue falling through the tracery of light, but he didn't. The boy grinned and stood up straight right there in mid air.

"Ha! I told you I got it," he whooped. Then he turned to look down at Shinichi and swept into a deep bow as though he were a performer on stage. When Shinichi only blinked at him, he frowned. "You're supposed to clap."

Shinichi made a face. "Seriously?" On the other hand, he supposed it was a pretty amazing feat. All considered, most people weren't able to use magic until they turned thirteen. Yet this boy was already casting advanced spells. Heaving a sigh, Shinichi dutifully clapped twice then sat back down and retrieved his book from where it lay on the grass.

"Aww, come on, you can do better than that." Creating two more hovering platforms, the stranger hopped down from one to the next before landing lightly right next to Shinichi. "Oh, I know. How about this?" Sticking his hand between Shinichi's nose and the pages of his book, he snapped his fingers. Shinichi jerked his head back with a yelp, cracking the back of his skull against the trunk of the tree behind him. A yellow rose popped into existence out of thin air, the petals so close that they filled his field of vision.

Annoyed, Shinichi pushed the flower away and glared at the stranger. "What is your problem?"

"Don't be like that," the stranger chided. "It's a beautiful day. It'd be a waste to spend it in a bad mood."

"I'm not in a bad mood."

"Your frowny face says otherwise~."

"Can you please leave me alone?"

"Why would you want to be alone?"

Groaning, Shinichi buried his face in his book. "I give up. What do you want anyway?"

"Well, a smile would be a good start."

"…"

"How about a name then? I'm Kuroba Kaito."

Sighing, Shinichi peeled himself off his book. "Kudo Shinichi," he muttered, not entirely sure if it was wise to give his name to this rather pushy new acquaintance. If the boy had been an adult, he would certainly have qualified as exactly the kind of stranger that small children should avoid. But since he couldn't be much older than Shinichi himself, the blue-eyed boy decided it probably wouldn't hurt to humor him a little. At least until he got bored and went away. He seemed the sort to bore easily.

He was broken out of his thoughts when the stranger—or rather Kaito—suddenly leaned over him, pushing his face right up close to Shinichi's.

"Oi!" Shinichi spluttered, trying to scramble backward but being unable to because there was a giant tree in the way. Didn't this boy know anything about personal space? "What—"

"You look a lot like me," Kaito crowed, face splitting in an excited grin. "I just noticed."

Shinichi's brows furrowed. His gaze traveled from the other boy's messy bird's nest of brown hair to his oddly colored indigo eyes. He couldn't help the snort that escaped his lips. "What are you talking about? We don't look anything alike."

"I mean, there are differences, obviously, but you could totally pass for my twin. Look." He plopped himself down on the grass right next to Shinichi and produced a hand mirror out of nowhere with a flourish. He held it up in front of them, leaning sideways as he did so so that their heads were closer together. Shinichi inched away instinctively, but the taller boy scooted right after him. "Just look. Come on. It won't kill you."

Pursing his lips, Shinichi relented. With both their faces staring back at him from the silver surface of Kaito's mirror, he supposed he could see what the other boy had meant. There was a certain similarity to their faces, but only just. Still, it was a little bit creepy. Was it remotely possible that this boy was some sort of distant relative he'd never heard of before? He was sure that even his parents would have told him if he had a brother out there somewhere. Right?

"Hey, how old are you?" Kaito asked.

"Huh? Oh. I'm eight."

"Then we're the same age," the other boy exclaimed with a toothy grin. "Until tomorrow anyway."

"Oh." Shinichi blinked. "Um, happy early birthday then, I guess."

"Thanks." The mirror vanished in a puff of smoke.

Not a spell this time but sleight of hand, Shinichi thought. Which reminded him…

"Have you been studying magic long?"

"Since forever," Kaito said at once. "I've been learning from my dad. He develops new spells. He's really amazing! People are always coming to ask him for advice and other kinds of help. We came to Beika today because one of his old students called about a problem she wanted his opinion on."

Shinichi felt his heart rate pick up. Only the most knowledgeable and skilled of magic users could develop their own spells. "Do you…know anything about Curse Marks?"

Kaito cocked his head to one side as his gaze sharpened. Suddenly he seemed a lot less manic and a great deal more serious. "I know a little. Was there something in particular you were interested in?"

Shinichi hesitated. "Well, I guess…do you know what they actually are?"

Kaito considered him for a long moment before answering. "I guess it's best to start at the beginning. I assume you know about the main types of magic?"

Shinichi nodded. "Sky and Earth. Everyone has either one or the other. Sky magic can be further broken down into the elements of air, water, and fire. Earth magic is comprised of wood, metal, and mineral."

"You're right about most of that. But the truth is that there are two more types of magic. They are generally referred to as Fortune and Soul Magic."

"I've never heard of those."

"Most people haven't. My dad says that only one in every thousand people is born with one of these types of magic. But when someone is, they are also born with a Curse Mark."

"So the mark is a sign that someone has Fortune or Soul Magic?"

"That's one aspect of it, yes."

Shinichi frowned, hand rising to his chin. "But then why is it called a curse?"

Kaito's expression grew grim. "It's because they are. The Curse Mark is just that. It's a mark a person is born with that tells you they are cursed. If you know how to read Curse Marks, you'll even know what curse it is."

"But then what do they have to do with a person's magic type?"

"It's a field that's still being studied, but the general belief is that Fortune and Soul Magic are not truly meant to be wielded by human beings. You see, people who have these types of magic can't use normal spells. Instead, they each have a specific and usually unique power. Many people believe that the heavens bestow these powers on special individuals on whom they also bestow a Task. In other words, the magic that the cursed person wields is given to them by the heavens to serve a certain purpose. But because their powers go against the natural order, those powers are counterbalanced by a curse. Of course, this is all just speculation."

"Have you ever met anyone with a real Curse Mark?"

Kaito shook his head. "Not personally. But my father's met several. He told me he even met a girl a long time ago who had the power to bring the dead back to life. But her curse was that, for every life she restored, another life had to end. It was a trade. A life for a life. People were always going to her to ask her to bring back the people they loved, offering their own lives in exchange. But she always turned them away because she said that those loved ones wouldn't want to come back to life only to learn that the people who'd wanted them back had died in their stead. That, and she didn't want to be a killer. Dad told me it was pretty hard on her having to explain that to grieving people over and over again day in and day out. Then one day her sister fell deathly ill. Her sister was a talented Earth Mage who should have had a bright future. So, in the end, the Soul Mage decided to give her own life to her sister. My dad said that he thought, in some ways, she had been looking for a reason to escape."

Shinichi looked down, only just remembering that he still had a book open on his lap. After that grim tale, however, he found the words weren't making any sense. So he shut the book and set it on the grass before pulling his knees up to his chest.

"So, um, hypothetically speaking, if you saw a Curse Mark, would you be able to tell what the curse attached to it was?"

"I've seen a few in the old records at my house," Kaito said slowly, expression giving nothing away. "But like I said, I only know a little. But if you had a picture for me to look at, I might be able to figure something out." He paused then to give Shinichi a very searching look. The intensity of his scrutiny made Shinichi feel like he'd been stripped bare and vulnerable, and he almost reached up to cover that spot on the base of the back of his neck. He stopped himself just in time though.

Instead, he turned to the blank pages at the very back of his father's book then pulled a pen from his pocket. "I can draw it for you."

He began to draw the Curse Mark as Kaito leaned over his shoulder to watch. The older boy was so close that Shinichi could feel his breaths against the side of his face, but at least that meant he was in no position to see the Curse Mark hidden under the back of Shinichi's collar.

When he had finished, Shinichi presented the open book to his new friend (he supposed he had to call anyone who he would show this symbol to a friend no matter how strange and pushy they were).

Kaito spent such a long time studying the drawing that Shinichi began to worry. Was it something so terrible that he didn't want to say anything about it? Or no, it was more likely that the boy just didn't recognize the mark. After all, there had to be a lot of different types of Curse Marks out there. This one was probably new to him.

As though in answer to his thoughts, Kaito sighed and handed the drawing back to him. "I haven't seen this Curse Mark before, but it does seem quite strange. Normally, you can tell if the marked person is a Fortune or Soul Mage based on the Curse Mark, but I can't even tell that from this one. You might want to check whatever source you got it from to make sure it's an accurate depiction."

Shinichi bowed his head. "I'll do that," he murmured, though he knew that there were no inaccuracies in his sketch. "Are they permanent? Curses I mean."

"As far as people know." Folding his arms behind his head, Kaito leaned back against the tree, gaze shifting to the sky visible beyond the leafy canopy over their heads. "Though there are ways around some of them—Dad's helping develop a few. Anyway, it depends on the curse."

Shinichi nodded slowly. That made sense. It wasn't good news, but he knew more now than he had that morning, and for that he was grateful to this strange boy.

A beeping sound drew both boys' attention to Kaito's watch. The older boy made a face but hopped to his feet.

"Sorry, I need to get going. It was nice meeting you though." He offered Shinichi his hand, rematerializing the yellow rose from before. "I'll see you again sometime."

This time, Shinichi accepted the blossom, albeit a bit hesitantly. "Thank you," he said. "I learned a lot."

Kaito beamed. "Glad I could help."

Shinichi remained where he was for a long time after the other boy had gone. He was no longer in the mood to read, but neither did he feel like going home. So he watched as the clouds chased each other across the mirror bright surface of the park's small lake and wondered.

X

When he got home that evening, Shinichi was more than a little surprised to find both his parents waiting for him. He'd been under the impression that his mother would be having dinner with an old friend of hers, and his father should have been meeting with his editors. Although, on Kudo Yuusaku's part, perhaps it wasn't that surprising that he was home then. He spent just as much of his time running from his editors as he did actually writing. Why he did this was one thing Shinichi knew he would never understand.

His mother descended upon him the moment he crossed the threshold and scooped him up into a crushing bear hug.

"Oh Shin-chan, where have you been? Dinner's already cold!" she scolded—rather hypocritically, in his opinion. Not waiting for an answer, she dragged him to the kitchen and pushed him into a chair, chattering all the while about how nice it had been to see Toichi-sensei again and what a charming boy his son had been even if he still had a thing or two about good manners.

She bustled about the kitchen as she talked. Shinichi watched her uncertainly, wondering what was wrong. Her cheer seemed forced. But that thought was quickly eclipsed by the bigger worry that his mother might actually have cooked dinner. Kudo Yukiko was many things, but a good cook was not one of them. Her husband wasn't any better. The best they could manage between the two of them was sandwiches. But then his mother brought some boxes out of the fridge. It looked like his parents had ordered out from one of the pasta places they frequented.

Shinichi relaxed. It was only then that his brain caught up with what his ears had been telling it.

"What?" he asked.

"I said we really haven't been spending enough time together as a family," she said. "So both your father and I are going to take the rest of the summer off. We can go to the beach and the zoo and the amusement park—oh, and there's that huge new shopping center!"

Shinichi opened his mouth then shut it again at a total loss for words. He knew he should be pleased. Instead, he couldn't help but think that something was wrong.

Shinichi went overnight from rarely seeing his parents to being nearly suffocated by them twenty four seven. They dragged him to every conceivable place a family could go. Some of it was enjoyable, but there was only so much of his parents' craziness that Shinichi could take at a time before he felt like he was going to go mad himself—especially when his mother got it into her head that what they really needed to do as a family was dress up and take a million pictures.

It didn't help that, with every passing day, the sense that something wasn't right grew stronger. He often caught his parents trading grim, meaningful glances when they thought he wasn't looking. But neither of them seemed to want to explain what was really going on. The whole situation left Shinichi confused and frustrated and just a little hurt. Didn't his parents trust him? He'd always thought they did, and he'd treasured that belief. But now…

It was an entire week before he was able to get some time to himself (his parents had suddenly announced that they had to go visit someone. They didn't say who, and he didn't ask). He immediately made his way to the park. This time he brought The Sign of Four with him. He was fully intent on immersing himself in one of his all time favorite novels so that he could forget at least for a little while the weirdness that had overtaken his life.

He succeeded for all of ten minutes.

"Oh hey, fancy seeing you here."

He knew that voice. He hadn't thought he'd ever hear it again, but, when he looked up, there stood Kaito.

"You live near here, right?" the older boy asked, inviting himself to sit down next to Shinichi like he had before. "Any idea if the ice cream from that cart by the front entrance is any good?"

"It's ice cream," Shinichi replied, puzzled. "Isn't it always kind of the same? As long as you're getting the same flavor anyway."

"Clearly you've never had ice cream from Umeko's Parlor," Kaito replied with all seriousness. "You don't know what really good ice cream is like until you've had theirs."

Shinichi tilted his head to one side, considering. "In that case, I can't tell you if the park ice cream is good. Since I've never had really good ice cream."

Kaito blinked at him for a moment, and Shinichi felt the corners of his lips twitching despite himself. Then Kaito burst out laughing.

"You have a point," he said, grinning. "But like you said, ice cream is ice cream. And Ice cream's always good. Come on. I want to try their peanut butter and chocolate swirl."

Somehow, Shinichi found himself accompanying Kaito to the ice cream cart. And when the older boy bought two cones instead of one and offered him the second, he accepted after only a brief hesitation. Once they'd finished their treats, Kaito asked Shinichi to show him around the park. Once again, the blue-eyed boy paused for only a split second before acquiescing. They ended up exploring not only the park grounds but also the surrounding neighborhood and shops. The rest of the afternoon flew in a surprisingly pleasant haze of what—to Shinichi anyway—was unaccustomed good cheer.

This time when they parted ways, Shinichi realized that he was hoping he would see Kaito again. And he did.

The following days crawled and galloped past in turn. Most of the time, he was gallivanting all over the region with his parents. But, whenever he got the chance (which was typically when his parents hurried off again to meet another mysterious someone or other), he would slip away to the park. And, more often than not, Kaito would meet him there.

The older boy, he soon learned, was not only a talented mage but also a skilled actor. Behind his good-natured cheer was a highly intelligent if rather devious mind with a penchant for mischief and mayhem. He could be rather arrogant, and he was definitely pushy. But he was also thoughtful, and he missed nothing. Best of all, he was every bit as well read as Shinichi was even if they tended to have different perspectives on things.

They spent many hours discussing everything from literature and current events to magic and philosophy. At other times, they played games. One particularly memorable afternoon, Shinichi had arrived at the park to find that Kaito had left him a riddle beneath their tree. That riddle had led to a series of other riddles which evolved into a full blown treasure hunt that ended with a book.

"A Curse Marked History," he read out loud, tracing the gold embossed letters on the leather cover.

"Since you were so interested in Curse Marks, I thought you might like this."

Not having heard Kaito approach, Shinichi jumped and spun around so fast that he would have fallen if Kaito hadn't caught his arm and steadied him. The Sky Mage must have been watching him this whole time.

"You mean this is for me?"

"Yep."

"But…" Shinichi trailed off at a loss as he hefted the large and probably rather expensive book. "I can't take this."

Kaito's brows furrowed. "What do you mean? Don't you want to read it?"

"It's not that," Shinichi said hastily. "Of course I want to read it. But this has got to be worth a lot. I mean, just look at this workmanship. You can't just go giving something like this away."

Kaito studied him for a long moment with an expression Shinichi couldn't read before he finally spoke. "Consider it a loan then. You can read it then return it to me when you're done. How about it?"

Shinichi considered the offer then nodded shyly, gaze fixed on the book's beautifully crafted cover. "Thank you. I'll take really good care of it."

Kaito chuckled. "I'm sure you will." He produced a pale pink rose with a flick of his wrist and tickled Shinichi's nose with it until the younger boy looked up, at which point Kaito offered him the blossom. "But this you have to keep."

Shinichi felt a peculiar fluttering in his stomach that he couldn't explain as a blush tinted his cheeks. Not sure what to say or why he was feeling this way, he accepted the rose.

The odd, bubbly happiness stuck with him all the way home and through to the next day. It lasted all the way up until his father handed him a brand new suitcase.

"We're going to Hawaii," the author informed him. "We're leaving tomorrow, so you should go pack."

X

"Two years?" Shinichi repeated numbly. It was a good thing he was already sitting down because his knees had gone weak at the news his parents had just dropped on him like the proverbial ton of bricks.

The entire Kudo family was currently seated in the airport waiting to board the plane that would take them to Hawaii. Kudo Yukiko had recently accepted a role in a short series to be produced in those tropical islands, and her husband was planning to set his next book there. It was the perfect opportunity for a chance in scenery, they'd said. With both elder Kudos working, the stay would be an extended one.

Two whole years to be exact.

"But what about school?" Shinichi asked a little desperately.

"We'll be homeschooling you while we're there," his father replied. "We've already informed the school."

Shinichi opened his mouth then shut it again. What could he say? He wanted to know why his parents hadn't told him sooner—wanted to tell them that he wasn't ready for a long stay overseas, but what then? Nothing would change. They would be boarding their plane in less than an hour!

"It'll be wonderful," Yukiko gushed, brandishing a colorful travel brochure. She went on to detail all the amazing places they would visit and the cool things they would be able to do, but Shinichi wasn't really listening.

Letting out a silent groan, he slumped back in the airport's gray plastic seat. He wanted to be surprised, but he found he just couldn't stir up the energy. Instead, he just felt resigned at this latest demonstration of how inconsiderate his parents could be even when they were trying to be nice. It was obvious to him that his parents both thought he should be excited about the trip, and part of him was. But he would have been a lot happier if they hadn't neglected to warn him.

Because of that, he'd never gotten to say goodbye to Kaito, the first real friend he'd ever made. A friend that he might not ever see again. He felt a pang in his chest at the thought. They'd never traded contact information, and he had no idea where Kaito lived except that it wasn't in Beika.

Would Kaito even remember him in two years?

And what about the book Shinichi had promised to return? It was currently in his suitcase. He winced at the thought. If he'd known about this trip, he would never have taken it. Now he might never get the chance to give it back.

The people all around them began rising to their feet and getting in line before the gate's closed doors. His parents rose as well, forcing Shinichi to follow suit. Soon, they were filing onto the plane. Then the airport was dwindling away below them. In no time at all, the patchwork of grays and greens that was the ground was washed away by a sea of fluffy clouds.


	2. Of Curses and Wishes

Two years came and went. They didn't do so quickly, but they did so bearably. Over time, Shinichi managed to forget the frustration he'd felt at being dragged to another country without warning for so long, but he never forgot the friend he'd made that strange summer. His mother had been right about a few things at least. Hawaii was a beautiful place, and it was difficult to stay mad at his parents while surrounded by the many wonders the islands had to offer. Despite that, Shinichi still found himself looking forward to going home.

Everything changed again the day after his tenth birthday.

"There's something we need to tell you."

Shinichi looked from his father's serious face to his mother's pensive one and back again. His small hands tightened instinctively around the pineapple smoothie he was drinking. "What is it?"

His parents exchanged one of those looks he'd come to know so well over the past two years before his father cleared his throat.

"First, you know that education in the use of magic generally begins when people turn thirteen."

Shinichi nodded.

"Do you know why?"

"I think it was because that was when most people's magic develops to a point where it can actually be used. Though some people with particularly strong magical gifts can begin training early."

"That is correct. What you may not know is that, typically, a person's magic begins developing around the age of ten. Therefore, for people born with Curse Marks, that is also usually the time that their curses begin to manifest themselves."

Shinichi felt himself go cold. "I…I see."

"Your mother and I have been speaking to specialists for a while in the hopes that someone would know what your Mark meant." His father took a folded paper out of his pocket and spread it out on the table. Shinichi was not at all surprised to see an enlarged picture of the Curse Mark at the base of the back of his neck. It looked like a tattoo drawn in dark blue ink, but it was nothing so innocuous. Like all Curse Marks, it resembled three interlocking circles, each with an impossibly complex pattern inside that wove together where those circles overlapped.

"According to the scholars, the contents of the circle of a Curse Mark that is closest to the heart represents a person's Task or fate," his father explained. "If you rotate the Mark so that the Task circle is the one on top then the contents of the lower left hand circle is the blessing, which is typically a special gift meant to make it easier for you to carry out your Task. And, lastly, the circle on the right symbolizes the curse. Some people consider it the price the person pays for his or her blessing."

His father paused, and Shinichi nodded to indicate that he'd understood. He'd heard all this before, though he'd never told his parents. He had read about these terms and beliefs in Kaito's book.

"Unfortunately, it's extremely rare for Tasks to be repeated, so we weren't able to find anyone who could interpret yours," Yuusaku continued. "But we were able to identify the other two aspects of your Mark."

"You were?" Shinichi straightened abruptly. His heart rate quickened. "What do they mean?"

"We'll start with the blessing. This particular one has only been documented twice before that we could find. It is referred to as the Blessing of the Cat. It was named based on the myth that cats have nine lives. A person who carries this blessing can survive what should be fatal circumstances eight times."

"And the curse?" Shinichi prompted.

The brief hesitation before Yuusaku answered was telling.

"It's called the Eye of Misfortune. And it's basically just what it sounds like. It's a curse that brings misfortune."

"So…I'm going to be really unlucky, but I don't have to worry about being so unlucky that it kills me?" Shinichi guessed. "Well, I guess it could have been worse," he mused, thinking out loud. "They sort of cancel each other out."

"It's not that simple," Yuusaku said sharply. "The misfortune brought on by this particular curse doesn't only apply to the bearer. It applies to everyone around him—around you. As for the blessing, I doubt it will always be clear to you when its effects have come into play. After all, how can you know what was a death narrowly avoided and what was just an ordinary close call? Don't take anything for granted. You should know better."

"Yuusaku!" Yukiko hissed, driving her elbow into her husband's side hard enough to make him wince. She leveled him with another glare for good measure before turning back to Shinichi. "I know this must all sound really scary, but there's good news. You see, when Toichi-sensei deciphered your Mark, we all started looking for a solution. Do you remember Eri, my old classmate? The one who married a police officer? Mouri Kogoro. They have a daughter about your age called Ran."

"They came over once so that Mouri-san could ask Tou-san some questions," Shinichi recalled.

His mother nodded enthusiastically. "That's right. Well, it turns out Kogoro has a Curse Mark too. His causes all magic around him to weaken or malfunction when they don't just outright stop working. And so, well, we thought, if you were to stay with the Mouris, you might actually be able to live a normal life until we can find another way."

"Stay?" Shinichi echoed. "As in live with them?"

His mother nodded, smiling in a manner that was too bright to be entirely real. "We've already arranged everything with the Mouris. You'll have this summer to settle in before you start at Ran-chan's school."

And that was that.

Later, as he lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling of his room in the small apartment that they'd been renting, Shinichi recalled the many accounts he'd read in A Curse Marked History of the lives of other people who had been born cursed. He had read them all a dozen times over and then some, but he'd never stopped to really think about the fact that all of the people in those stories had died young. He had assumed that it was because the tales in the book had been of particularly famous or consequential figures who, therefore, had led tumultuous lives. But now he had to wonder if maybe that was just another part of what it meant to be marked by a curse.

It was no wonder that there was a history of people with Curse Marks being ostracized. Their existence had been used to both prove the existence of higher powers and destiny and hammer home humanity's many insurmountable limitations. Because of that, cultures and civilizations around the globe had revered them as agents of the gods while simultaneously shunning them as people whose lives were not and would never be their own.

Rolling over onto his side, Shinichi stared at the sliver of night sky he could see between the crack in the curtains. He knew he was over thinking things and probably blowing everything up way out of proportion, but he felt he could allow himself this one night of melancholy. After all, his parents were basically giving him away next week to people that Shinichi had only ever met once in his life.

He knew they were doing what they thought was best for him, but that didn't make the encroaching change any easier to swallow.

He wished there was someone he could talk to. But there wasn't. And he supposed he wouldn't have known how to even start putting the jumble in his head into words anyway.

X

The flight back to Japan passed far too quickly for Shinichi's tastes. It had gone even faster because someone had been murdered on the plane. Since Shinichi had been one of the few passengers who'd been paying attention to which people had come and gone from their seats, he found himself providing evidence to his father and the off-duty police officer who happened to be taking the same plane. By the time the case had been wrapped up, the aircraft was already in sight of Tokyo.

They were picked up by a tall man with a small mustache and a severe-looking woman with spectacles who were introduced to Shinichi as Mouri Kogoro and his wife Eri.

"It's good to see you again. You're looking well," Eri explained as she and Yukiko hugged each other in greeting. "Ran's at her friend's house, but we're going to pick her up right now. We thought we could all have dinner together."

Yukiko beamed. "Of course."

Soon, the five of them were seated in the Mouris' rental car. They stopped by the Kudo Manor first so that they could drop off Yukiko and Yuusaku's luggage. Shinichi felt another pang as he was told he would be leaving his own suitcase at the Mouris' apartment. Said apartment turned out to be the site of the Mouri Detective Agency. Kogoro, it turned out, had left the police force three months ago and set up his own business.

This discovery cheered Shinichi greatly. He'd always loved mysteries, and he'd dreamed about being a detective himself one day. The thought that he might be able to see a real live detective at work on a daily basis was almost exciting enough to make up for everything.

X

"He seems to be taking everything in stride," Eri said. She, Kogoro, and Yukiko had retreated to the café below the agency after settling the children in upstairs. Yuusaku had stayed behind to read the two a story and hopefully help them get acquainted. That left the rest of the adults to discuss the issues that had been weighing on all their minds.

Beside her, Kogoro let out a loud snort. "He's just a kid. He probably doesn't understand what's going on."

"No, he does understand," Yukiko replied. She worried at her lower lip as her large, bright blue eyes (so much like her son's) filled with trepidation. "I think he's actually really upset, but he hasn't said a word about it to us. Shin-chan's always preferred to keep things to himself."

"Have you heard from the archmage recently about that project of his?"

"He sends me an update every now and then, but it sounds like he hasn't made much headway," the actress admitted. "And with the Promotion Exams coming up, he's been pretty busy. He's on the judges panel for the Master's Certification this year."

Eri nodded. "Understandable. Well, I'm sure he'll get back to you if something changes."

"I know."

"So what will you and Yuusaku be doing next?"

"We're thinking about going to America. There are several studies going on at major universities there that might be helpful. And Yuu-chan has some places he needs to go for research purposes."

X

Mouri Ran had always been told that it was rude to stare, but she couldn't help it. Aside from her father, she had never seen anyone with a Curse Mark before. Add to that the fact that the boy's parents were both famous names in the entertainment industry and, well, who wouldn't stare at least a little, right? Anyway, her friend Suzuki Sonoko had demanded that Ran report to her exactly what the boy looked like.

Shinichi had his mother's big blue eyes and delicate features but his father's dark hair. He was small for a boy his age, but he held himself with a calm assurance that made him seem older than he really was. His most distinctive feature, however, had to be the cowlick at the back of his head that Ran privately found rather comical.

It was that cowlick that had reminded Ran that she really had met this boy once before. Back then, however, she hadn't known about his Mark. That wasn't the kind of information people shared about themselves without reason after all.

Now, she found herself peering at the boy whenever she thought he wasn't looking, wondering where exactly his Mark was and what it looked like and what it did that would lead his parents to come to her dad.

Pausing in the middle of her summer homework, she peered across the living room to where Shinichi was curled up on the couch with a book (this seemed to be his default state of existence. He had been with them for a week now, and he had spent more than half that time doing precisely this). She'd never met anyone else who could spend so much time reading.

The day was particularly hot, so, for the first time in his stay, he was wearing shorts and short sleeves. She found herself squinting, trying to find any trace of that telltale dark blue birthmark. Finding none, she returned to her homework.

An hour later, she decided she'd done enough and closed her books. She packed everything up and carried it back into her room. When she returned to the living room, she saw Shinichi still in the same position on the couch with that same book. Now that she thought about it, she often saw him with that book. It was a large, leather-bound thing with fancy gold leaf worked into the cover and a blue silk ribbon for a bookmark. Shinichi consumed new novels like they were oxygen, but he always seemed to go back to this book.

Unable to resist her curiosity any longer, Ran walked over to the couch and sat down next to him.

"Can I ask you what you're reading?" she asked politely.

Looking up, Shinichi blinked owlishly at her before uncurling to sit up straight. He looked down at the book on his lap then up at her again before speaking.

"It's a collection of records and stories about Curse Marks and the people who've had them," he said.

"It's a really beautiful book," she observed, looking at the full-page illustration just below where Shinichi's hand was resting. "I've never seen anything like it in a bookstore. Did your parents give it to you?"

He shook his head. "I got it from a friend."

"So it's from Hawaii?"

To her surprise, Shinichi actually laughed. It was the first time she'd heard him do so since he'd come to stay with her family.

"No," he said. "My friend lent it to me just before we left for Hawaii. I didn't know we'd be leaving, so I never had the chance to give it back to him." A look of guilt flashed across his face at the admission. That was another thing she'd noticed about him, Ran thought. His face tended to reflect his thoughts even though he rarely chose to voice them. It was particularly obvious when he was reading. He would smile or frown or make other faces as he moved through a story. It made him seem less distant than he had appeared at first, she mused. It was a good thing, she decided.

If they were going to be living together, they might as well be friends. It would be like having a brother. She'd always secretly wanted a little brother or sister, but neither of her parents seemed interested in having more children. If anything, they had begun arguing so much lately that she was honestly afraid they might get a divorce.

But she didn't want to think about that right now.

So instead she focused back on Shinichi. "Would you mind if I took a look at your book? I've always wanted to learn more about Marks and things because of Dad, but everything I found in the bookstore was fiction."

Shinichi hesitated only a moment before nodding and carefully passing the tome to her. Understanding just how much the book meant to her new brother, Ran accepted it with just as much care.

"Wow, it's heavy," she marveled. She flipped through a few pages, admiring the illustrations and the beauty of the old-fashioned calligraphy. "Oh, but there's English and Japanese in here."

"According to the preface, the original book was written by an American professor of Magic in Sociology who traveled the world collecting stories and evaluating their validity. Someone called Kuroba Chikage translated his work. The printers decided to include both the original English and the Japanese because they felt the information would be more complete that way. In any case, I've found that reading both gives you a fuller understanding of how the stories and ideologies fit into the modern understanding of Curse Marks and the role of magic in society as you get both a western and eastern perspective."

Throughout Shinichi's explanation, Ran could only stare. When he was done, she shook her head and let out a surprised laugh.

"I'm sorry, but I think that's a bit too much for me. Can you just maybe recommend a few stories? Do you have a favorite?"

The light that had ignited in Shinichi's face as he spoke of the book dimmed a little, but he directed her to a few chapters she might be interested in. They ended up reading the stories together, and he would explain the parts that she didn't quite get.

They started talking more after that—mostly about books, though Ran discovered that the boy was also quite enthusiastic about soccer.

She could get to like this new brother, Ran decided. He could get too caught up in his reading and spend hours on end blabbing about it regardless of her lack of interest, but he meant well. And he definitely wasn't the cold, snobby rich kid that she had been afraid he'd turn out to be.

Rather, she thought, he seemed to be an innocent soul trapped by unfortunate circumstances but determined still to find light in the darkness—even if that light was mostly between the pages of the latest novels.


	3. Snapshot

Tap, tap, tap.

"Shinichi?"

Tap, tap, tap.

"Shinichi! You better get up now or you won't have time to eat breakfast!"

Groaning, Shinichi rolled over and burrowed under his blankets. Right on cue, however, his alarm clock began to shrill. The combination of that piercing cry and Ran's continued banging on his door had him blinking open bleary eyes. It was another few moments before he could force his reluctant body to sit up.

"I'm up, I'm up," called before Ran could decide to barge into the room herself.

The knocking stopped. "We're having toast and scrambled eggs," the girl called through the door before walking away.

Still groggy, Shinichi stumbled out of bed and across the room to turn off his alarm (he'd long ago learned that leaving it within arm's reach of the bed would lead to a dozen clicks of the snooze button and a subsequently angry Ran). He changed into his school uniform with his eyes half closed. He managed to make it out the door and into the bathroom without running into anything purely because of muscle memory, though he didn't remember brushing his teeth or washing his face. It wasn't until he was seated at the kitchen table with half a mug of coffee in his hands (it was his second mug of the morning) that he finally began to register anything that was going on around him. It was only then that he noticed that something—or rather someone—was missing.

"Where's your father?" Most mornings saw the former police officer glued to the morning show hosted by his favorite television star, Okino Yoko. Today, however, the apartment was eerily silent. A glance revealed that the television was off, and there was no sign of Mouri Kogoro anywhere.

Ran gave Shinichi a funny look. "He just left. You even said goodbye. Don't you remember?"

Shinichi blushed and hid his face behind his coffee mug.

Ran shook her head. "Honestly Shinichi, you really need to drink less coffee. It isn't healthy to be so dependant on it at such a young age."

Shinichi clutched his mug protectively and hastened to change the subject. "So did he get a case?"

"He did." Ran pursed her lips as she sat down across from him and picked up her toast. "He's following someone's spouse for the day."

Shinichi suppressed a grimace. In his opinion, investigating an affair did not really qualify as a real case. On the other hand, it was one of the few types of cases that Ran's father never needed help with.

Shinichi still remembered his own excitement back when he had first come to live with the Mouris at the idea of meeting a real detective. Sadly, he had learned all too quickly that Mouri Kogoro was nothing at all like the detectives he loved reading about. Though the man had his heart in the right place, he tended to jump to the first available conclusion then dismiss even the need to look for additional evidence. It didn't help that the man had started drinking more since Eri had moved out shortly after Shinichi and Ran started middle school.

It was also around that time, however, that Kogoro had begun to work more homicide cases. This was not by choice. Over the past few years, Shinichi—and by extent Kogoro—had begun stumbling over murder victims more and more often. Looking back, Shinichi realized that it had all started with that murder on the airplane that had brought him back from Hawaii. But at first, the cases had only shown up once every few months.

Nowadays, it happened two to three times a week.

At first, they'd all thought it was his curse kicking in and that either they'd been wrong about Kogoro's curse negating his or that he wasn't spending enough time in the man's company. They had briefly debated the merit of testing the theory by allowing Shinichi to go with Ran on an overnight school trip that he had originally had to sit out on, but they had collectively decided that it was too risky. So instead they had asked around and found that one of Eri's new colleagues knew a Sky Mage with the police forensics department who specialized in detection magic. He had listened to their story with interest before agreeing to lend them a hand. After all, he'd said, it was a matter of public safety.

He spent the following weekend shadowing Kogoro and Shinichi, the latter of whom had been thrilled by the chance to ask the man all about his work with the police. They had been discussing the recent changes in the licensing requirements for practicing mages over lunch on Sunday when a man at the next table keeled over dead.

On the upside, they had confirmed that it was not Shinichi's curse somehow inspiring people to commit murder in his vicinity. On the downside, that meant that there were just a lot of murderers out there, and apparently Fate had decreed that Shinichi meet as many of them as possible.

That day, after he'd (discreetly) helped Kogoro help the police identify the murderer, Shinichi had spent some time holed up in his room and just staring at a photo of his Curse Mark that he kept hidden at the bottom of one of his desk drawers. And he wondered if these murderers had anything to do with whatever destiny he had been tasked with.

"Finish your food," Ran admonished, dumping her own empty plates into the sink. "We have to get going."

Shinichi obediently shoved the last forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth then downed the rest of his coffee before taking his plate to the sink as well. It was his job to wash them up after school.

Though he knew that his parents were paying the Mouris for his room and board, he made a point of doing his share of the chores. At first, it had been out of a sense of obligation to these people who had taken him despite his situation. But now it was because he had come to see them as family. Really, Ran behaved more like his mother than his real mother ever had. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that, so he tried not to dwell on it.

Backpacks slung over their shoulders, the two teenagers made their way out of the apartment and down the stairs past the café where they often had lunch or dinner on more relaxed days. When they reached the street, they were met by a petit girl with her light brown hair cut straight at the shoulders. Her name was Suzuki Sonoko, and she was one of Ran's oldest friends.

Shinichi would never forget the first time Ran introduced him to the other girl. She had given him a very long and careful look over before asking, "So where's your Curse Mark then?"

Ran had immediately gone bright red with a horrified "Sonoko!" before hastening to apologize to Shinichi for her friend's rudeness (and for the fact that she had told said friend about his Mark without asking him. She hadn't meant to, she'd assured him, but it had just sort of slipped out).

It had taken Shinichi some time to get used to Sonoko and even longer to start thinking of her as a friend, but it wasn't because of her bluntness. That was one aspect of her personality that he quite appreciated.

Her other qualities, however, had taken him a great deal of time to get used to. She liked gossiping way too much and was prone to exaggeration. On top of that, she seemed to see drama and romance in everything—and when he said everything, he meant everything. From middle school on up, she was constantly on the lookout for potential boyfriends, and she always had something new to say about somebody's relationship, whether or not that relationship truly existed. She even went through a phase where she kept insisting that Shinichi had to be in love with Ran and vice versa. When they had tried to correct her, she'd gleefully declared that their denials made it true. Worse still, she said all this loudly and frequently in very public places. It wasn't until recently that she'd finally dropped the issue, though Shinichi suspected that she was still convinced of her own assumptions and was just lying in wait to catch them at it.

Well, she was welcome to try. Since he and Ran saw each other as close siblings, there was really nothing for Sonoko to find. But if she was looking then she wouldn't try to set him up on a blind date again.

Shinichi winced at the memory.

It had been the last year of middle school, and Sonoko had insisted that they all had to have dates for the end of year dance. When Shinichi had said that he wouldn't be attending the dance, she had threatened to tell people he was cursed. Though Shinichi was fairly certain that most of their classmates had guessed he had a Mark by now, he was still far from ecstatic about having the fact belted out to the general public. So he had surrendered and allowed Sonoko to set him up with a friend of hers who, she'd assured him, was also not interested in really dating anyone ("She just needs someone to go with her to the dance because no one asked her and she doesn't want to go alone," Sonoko had said).

Only Sonoko had conveniently forgotten to mention that they would be going to the girl's family restaurant before the dance, and that meant they all had to be properly dressed. The next thing Shinichi knew, he was being bundled out of his bed and into the backseat of one of Sonoko's family vans and essentially kidnapped. He'd been hauled into Sonoko's room, where the girls had forced him into a dozen outfits (some of which had to be for their own amusement since he didn't think they were seriously considering making him go to the dance in a dress—unless there was something about this friend of hers that Sonoko really needed to tell him. And here he'd thought he'd escaped dress-up time when his mother had gone overseas) before eventually picking one out. All this had taken four hours. Then they'd driven the insanely long way to Sonoko's friend's place, and just as they were sitting down to dinner, the girl had stabbed Shinichi in the stomach with a steak knife. It turned out that Shinichi had been partially responsible for the arrest of her older brother in an armed robbery case.

Shinichi had ended up spending the next several days laid up in the hospital. On the bright side, he got to skip the dance, so he decided he didn't mind.

"I'm really, really, really sorry," Sonoko had told him. It was the most serious he had ever seen her, and he found himself feeling a little touched. It was the first time he realized that she might actually care about him as a friend.

So he'd smiled and assured her that it was okay. "You couldn't have known. And no one died, so it's fine."

"How can you be so calm about this?" she'd demanded, making an abrupt one eighty from guilty and apologetic to exasperated annoyance.

He hadn't known how to answer her. He had long since accepted the fact that he was essentially living on borrowed time. He'd done his research on the previous bearers of the Blessing of the Cat as well as the Eye of Misfortune, and none of them had lived past the age of twenty five. At first, it had scared him. Of course it had. Who wouldn't be scared upon learning that they would almost certainly die by the age of twenty five? But being scared didn't change anything. Nor did it help anyone. So he'd accepted it and moved on.

In the end, he decided to just tell Sonoko the truth.

That was the day Suzuki Sonoko had learned the details of Shinichi's curse. She'd left with an uncharacteristic frown on her face, and Shinichi had been worried about where their friendship would go after that. But, to his relief, she had gone right back to the way she'd always been the following day. She didn't treat him any differently, and he was more grateful for that than she would ever know. Though she never threatened to tell anyone about his curse again.

"So are you ready for the exam?" Ran asked Sonoko as they neared the gates of their high school.

Sonoko let out a loud groan. "As ready as I can be, I guess. Seriously Shinichi, you're lucky you don't have to take any Mage Certification exams."

"I still have to take the written test," he pointed out.

"Well yeah, but it's the practical exams that are hard."

"I'll have to take your word for that."

She scowled. "You're not being very helpful."

"I didn't realize you were asking for help."

"Come on you two, you need to keep your voices down. The seniors are already taking their tests," Ran cut in, hiding a smile at her friends' bickering. Though she doubted Sonoko would ever admit it, she knew that this sort of back and forth with Shinichi helped Sonoko relax when she was nervous. She was fairly sure Shinichi was aware of this too and was doing what he could to help in his own way, though Ran was sure he wouldn't admit it either. "Let's just all focus on getting through our exams, and then we can go somewhere tomorrow to celebrate and relax."

Sonoko brightened instantly. "We should go to Tropical Land. They did some major remodeling recently, and their reviews since the reopening have all been really good."

In no time at all, the girls had agreed on a meeting time and place on the morrow. Shinichi considered pointing out that, if either of them happened to fail their practical exam today, they would have to come back to school tomorrow to retake the test, but he decided he had better keep that observation to himself.

The three Teitan High students exchanged their shoes for indoor slippers then made their way towards the wing of classrooms that had been allotted to the tests being administered to those in their year. There were students from all grades lined up along most of the school building's long hallways. Some were reviewing their notes or meditating while others practiced the spells they would be demonstrating for the practical exams.

All students began taking lessons in magic once they turned thirteen. Each year after that, they were tested on both their knowledge of magic theory and history and their practical casting skills. To graduate high school, you had to earn a Level 5 Mage Certification, which essentially proved that you had the proper understanding and control over your magic not to be a danger to society. Most people, however, aimed for at least a Level 7 Certification because it opened a lot of doors in the job market. Most certificates beyond Level 7 were specialized and required many years of advanced study to attain.

Ran opened the door to the large classroom at the end of the hall where the Level 3 written exam was to be administered. The man proctoring the exam looked up as they entered and gestured to the stack of papers on the corner of his desk.

"Take a test and find a seat," he instructed. "There is no time limit, so you can start whenever you're ready and just turn it in when you're done. There is to be no talking. And be warned. The anti-cheating spells on these exams will know if your answers are not ones you came up with on your own. If you have a phone, it must be turned off and placed on the corner of your desk where I can see it. In the event that you have not yet finished your test by the time you have to go in for your practical, you can bring your partially completed test to me for safekeeping and show me your practical test appointment card. Then, once you're done with your practical, you can return and finish it. But make sure your practical exam proctor signs and time stamps your appointment card so we know you didn't take a detour before coming back. Do you have any questions?"

They all shook their heads. Shinichi picked a test booklet up from the stack and followed Ran and Sonoko to a trio of empty desks near the back corner of the classroom next to the windows.

Pen in hand, Shinichi flipped open the booklet and immediately wrote down his name. He'd heard several students complain in the past that they'd had to retake exams because they'd forgotten that one little oh so innocuous question at the top: "Name".

Then he moved on. As someone who loved to read and who had always had an excellent memory, especially for topics in which he had a vested interest, Shinichi found the exam to be quite simple. He was among the first students in the room to finish.

He headed to the school library after handing in his test. Everyone he passed in the hallways gave him a wide berth, but he had grown too accustomed to such behavior to be bothered by it anymore. Still, he was glad to find the library mostly deserted. The librarian nodded at him as he passed.

"A former student recently donated a large collection of novels," she told him. "I haven't sorted through them yet, so they're all piled on the reading tables in the back. You're welcome to look through them if you'd like."

"Thank you. I will. Did you want me to sort them while I'm at it?"

She smiled. "Actually, if you could group them up by genre, that would be really helpful."

Shinichi found the aforementioned donations and began going through them. When he came across a book he didn't recognize, he would flip it over and read the summary on the back. Soon, he had three books set aside that he wanted to read and the rest of the collection organized into neat, alphabetized stacks by genre. That done, he looked at the clock and saw that he still had another hour before he had to go speak with the school's career councilor.

Since he had a Curse Mark, he couldn't use any of the spells students were typically taught in school. Because of this, he didn't actually have a practical exam to take. But the school had decided that cursed students should meet with a teacher or councilor in place of that exam to give the illusion to the rest of the student body that they too were normal students. Shinichi could understand and appreciate that the administration was trying to help students like himself maintain their anonymity, but he also knew that their efforts wouldn't really stop people from noticing sooner or later which students were never asked to cast spells in class.

For him, the charade was even more pointless. After all, he was often in the news with Mouri Kogoro and the police solving homicide cases. While some of his classmates had thought that was cool to begin with, they had soon begun to be creeped out by the frequency with which Shinichi ran into dead bodies. Nowadays, everyone in the high school was of the opinion that he was cursed to bring death with him wherever he walked.

"That's not true at all," Ran had often been heard shouting at the classmates who dared to bring this up in front of her, but the rumor stuck. It had grown so prevalent that Kogoro and Eri had been called in by the principal, and they had had to explain the full extent of Shinichi's situation to the man and his top staff members. They had agreed not to share what they'd learned, but the whole debacle had left Shinichi feeling more down than he would like to admit.

He had read that in some parts of the world, people with Curse Marks were thought to have been those who had committed a great sin in a past life. Those souls were then reincarnated and given a Task to fulfill to make up for their wrongdoing, a Blessing to help them, and a Curse to remind them of their shame. Another legend claimed that the Curse Marked were not human at all but angels sent down to earth to finish an important task. And so, when that task was completed, their mortal bodies died and they returned to their places in the heavens, thus explaining the typically short life expectancy of being born cursed. Similar stories could be found in every culture across the globe, and Shinichi knew more than fifty of them by heart, but he had yet to decide which one of them, if any, he liked.

Shaking away those grim thoughts, he opened one of the new books and began to read, losing himself in the exploits of a race craft pilot and his teammate as they sought to win a prestigious championship.

When he reached the career councilor's door, he found it already open. Yamaguchi-sensei was already sitting at his desk. He waved Shinichi in and gestured for him to close the door.

"Well, Kudo, this meeting shouldn't take long, since I know you've been working a lot with the police. I assume that is where you see yourself headed in terms of your future career."

Shinichi blinked, taken aback by the man's many presumptions. But he supposed they were probably correct. If he lived that long, he could see himself joining the police as a police detective or possibly becoming a private investigator. He'd never given too much thought to the distant future since he didn't think he had a distant future to think about.

"I would like that," he said when he realized the man did in fact want a response.

"Right. Good. Suits your calling, I'd say." He started typing away on his laptop.

Shinichi waited for several minutes then asked, "Does this mean I can go?"

"In a minute. First, there's an offer we recently received that we are passing on to all students with Curse Marks like yourself." The man pulled a pamphlet out of his desk drawer and slid it across the desk to Shinichi.

"They're called the Choice Foundation, and they're looking for volunteers with curses. They're a nonprofit organization that is studying how curse marks might be removed or possibly reworked into something, well, better for everyone, I guess. They are a pretty secretive lot—jealous about their discoveries, no doubt, so I don't know much, but I thought it may be something you'd be interested in."

"It says they need volunteers?" Shinichi asked warily.

"Like I said, they're working on removing or controlling curses. To do that, they would need people willing to try their methods. Just take this home with you, look them up, ask some questions, and see what you think. If you decide you might be interested, you can come back and tell me, and I can get you an introduction. Or you can call them directly yourself."

"All right. I'll think about it." Shinichi put the pamphlet into his book bag and rose. "Is that all?"

"Yes. You may go now."


	4. Turning Point

Shinichi was enjoying a cup of black coffee and one of the books he'd just borrowed from the school library in a small but well kept café near campus when Ran and Sonoko found him. He wasn't particularly surprised to see them since he knew that they knew that this was one of his favorite cafes. The way Sonoko slouched into the seat across from him, however, had him raising his eyebrows.

"Tough test?" he guessed.

She made a face at him. "I got Moriyama-sensei as my proctor. He's always so strict. He made me demonstrate lighting then putting out a fire five times before he was satisfied! I mean seriously, who cares if the kindling is still hot as long as the fire's out? It's not like it's going to burst back into flame on its own the moment your back is turned."

"Actually," Shinichi couldn't help but tell her. "Just last year, there was a camper who doused his campfire with magic but forgot to check if he actually dispersed all the heat with his spell. The thermal energy left in the firewood really did start the thing burning again. It could have led to a forest fire if his sister hadn't noticed and thrown a bucket of dirt over the fire."

Sonoko glowered at him. "Okay, fine. So maybe he had a reason, but I got it right the third time. He just made me do it two more times after that because he's a prick."

"He probably just wanted to make sure your success wasn't a fluke. Three perfect executions is standard for confirming that a person has mastered a spell."

"Ugh. Why do you even know all this stuff?" she complained. "You don't even have to take these tests."

"I just pay attention," Shinichi replied dryly. The girl stuck her tongue out at him. Deciding he didn't feel like trading verbal barbs with her, he turned his attention to Ran. "How did your test go?"

"It went well," Ran replied, smiling. "I had to put a malleability spell on a stick of wood, reshape it then take the malleability spell off, leaving it in its new form and demonstrate that the new shape was solid and would hold. They also had me identifying different types of metal and rock. I didn't do as well on that though. I think I got only half of them right. But they said that that's pretty normal at my level since my affinity is more towards the wood element."

"Hey, you guys know that the level seven exams are open to the public right?" Sonoko asked suddenly.

Both Ran and Shinichi turned to look at her, one puzzled and the other intrigued.

"I remember," Ran said. "They're being held next weekend, and one of the exam sites is in Ekoda this year. It's not too far from Beika. I thought we might be able to go watch if either of you are interested."

"Of course we have to go!" Sonoko erupted. Slamming her hands down on the table, she leaned over it so that she was glaring Ran and Shinichi full in the face, gray eyes gleaming. "There are actually three high school students taking that exam this year. Three! Do you have any idea how rarely something like that happens? One of them is actually the son of an archmage! These guys must be incredible! I bet they're hot too," she squealed, and promptly devolved into her fangirl dreams. Shinichi only shook his head.

He had heard that the Level Seven exams were difficult and often a sight to behold, and he was rather curious what kinds of mages their age would even dare to attempt the challenge before they'd even graduated high school, but he had the strong suspicion that Sonoko wasn't interested in going to see the magic. Listening to her gush over potential boyfriends wasn't his idea of a pleasant way to spend his free time. Still, he did kind of want to watch the exams. He'd wanted to sit in on them ever since he'd learned they were open to the public, but the locations changed every year. This was the first year that they were being held somewhere within easy reach.

"So what do you think" Ran asked. "Do you want to go?"

Shinichi hesitated only a moment before nodding. "All right. As long as nothing comes up."

X

Kogoro still wasn't home when Ran and Shinichi got back to the Mouri Detective Agency. Someone had left a case on the answering machine that no one had listened to yet. So Shinichi played through the clues that the worried client had recorded then spent some time on the computer, running searches on various stations and models before he found that the client's daughter had been secretly going out to learn how to skateboard. He relayed the information to the client on Kogoro's behalf then went to bed, having forgotten to eat the dinner Ran had left on the table for him.

He only remembered that he hadn't eaten when he woke up starving the following morning. Stumbling out into the kitchen, he mumbled a good morning to Ran and was surprised when she didn't reprimand him for skipping dinner. Then he spotted his plate from last night on the drying rack already dry. Since Ran hadn't been up for very long either, he supposed Kogoro must have eaten the dinner and cleaned up when he got home last night. However, like yesterday, the apartment was distinctly devoid of the sounds of Kogoro and his favorite morning show.

"Is your dad still sleeping?" he asked, pouring himself a mug of coffee.

"No. He left early again." Ran set two plates of pancakes on the table. "He's still working the case from yesterday."

Shinichi frowned into his mug. "Do you know when he got back last night?"

"I asked, but he didn't remember."

A feeling of foreboding stirred in Shinichi's stomach. Through trial and error, they had deduced that Shinichi needed to spend at least six hours a day around Mouri Kogoro to keep his curse in check. Last time Kogoro had been held up by bad weather, leaving Ran and Shinichi alone for two days, Ran had broken her arm falling down the stairs outside the apartment, the power in their building had shorted out, and someone had dropped a match on a pile of newspapers in the café downstairs, nearly setting the place on fire. "Maybe I should stay home today."

"Don't be ridiculous," Ran admonished. "It's not like Dad didn't come home last night. Anyway, we already promised Sonoko we'd all go to Tropical Land today to celebrate the exams being over. She'll throw a fit if you skip for no reason."

"I wouldn't say it's no reason."

"Just come. And if anything strange happens then come home."

Shinichi could tell from Ran's tone that she was determined to make him go even if it was only for part of the day. Well, like she'd said, Kogoro had been home. They didn't know for how long, but he had. Shinichi reminded himself of this as he followed Ran out the door. Despite the reminders, the uneasy feeling followed him all the way from the apartment to the train station where they met up with Sonoko.

They boarded the train and made it all the way to the amusement park without incident. By the time they had gone in five rides and visited three other attractions, Shinichi began to relax. Of course, that was when someone died.

Still, he reminded himself as the police swarmed the rollercoaster, cordoning off the scene and interviewing witnesses, murders tended to happen around him even when Kogoro was around. Inexplicable as it had to seem to most people, such incidents were not a byproduct of his curse. So why couldn't he shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong?

X

"Hey, where'd the detective geek go?" Sonoko asked. She had just returned from a quick trip to the restroom to find Ran waiting for her alone on a bench near the ice cream cart.

"I'm not sure," Ran replied with a faint frown. "He said he had to check on something and that we should go ahead if he doesn't get back soon."

"And how long ago was that?"

"He left just after you did."

Sonoko thought for a moment. It had taken her a while to find someone who could give her directions to the restroom. Then she'd spent at least ten minutes waiting in line to get in. All told, she'd probably been gone for a little over half an hour. That…was a pretty long time for just checking on something.

On the one hand, that bookworm got distracted rather easily by the most ridiculous little things like why some random stranger was wearing a hat indoors or why some other stranger was carrying a bag designed for golf clubs through an aquarium (and okay, so the first stranger had been a wanted felon and the second a crazy seafood fanatic intent on tasting a rare fish that happened to be on display in said aquarium, but that didn't change the fact that Shinichi had gotten sidetracked and been late to meet up with her and Ran both times). That meant Shinichi could simply be off following some other weirdo and forgotten the time. But on the other hand, he always seemed to be getting into trouble (like that time last summer when he'd gotten himself locked in a building that was about to be demolished. He'd only gotten out of that one because Ran had found the phone he'd dropped outside the building). Curse or no curse, he really was unlucky.

"You should call him," she declared, face uncharacteristically serious. "I am not missing out on watching those exams next week because he landed himself in the hospital again."

Ran dialed Shinichi's number.

There was no answer.

She tried again, but still, no one picked up. By the third try, she was truly beginning to worry.

The two girls traded looks. Neither of them even considered leaving.

Sonoko snapped her fingers. "That Earth Magic compass spell for finding things you know really well. You learned it, right?"

"I did," Ran said hesitantly. "But I'm not very good at it."

"Better than trying to search this whole place," Sonoko retorted. "I'll be right back."

The petit girl sprinted off and returned a few minutes later with a metal hairclip she'd just bought from one of the many souvenir vendors scattered throughout the park. She handed this to Ran then stood back. "Go on. You can do it."

Ran lay the pin across her open palm then closed her eyes. She conjured a picture of Shinichi in her mind, trying to make it as clear as possible. Then she traced the requisite signs in the air over the pin as she chanted the spell. Coming to the end, she opened her eyes and stared down at the pin, hardly daring to breathe as she willed it to point her towards Shinichi. For a long moment, the pin simply sat there, and she wondered how she would know that the spell was working if it was already lying in the right direction. But then the metal warmed and the pin rotated thirty degrees counterclockwise.

"This way!" She set off at a run with Sonoko close on her heels.

With closing time fast approaching, the crowds in the park had begun to thin, so they made good speed. Not that they had very far to go. The pin led them around to the back of a ride that had already closed for the night. Ran's heart leapt into her throat when she saw what appeared to be the shadow of a body lying on the ground ahead. Her concern grew when she recognized Shinichi's jacket. But as she came to a stop next to the 'figure' on the ground, her worry turned to confusion.

Those were definitely Shinichi's clothes, but…where was Shinichi? She wasn't seeing any hands at the ends of those sleeves, and those shoes weren't actually on anyone's feet. The clothes weren't lying flat on the ground though.

Ran crouched and peeled back the jacket. She gasped.

Sonoko leaned over her shoulder, eyes wide. "No way…"

X

Shinichi woke with a splitting headache. Groaning, he shifted in search of a more comfortable position only to wince as every muscle in his body protested. He felt like he'd been run over by a truck.

He spent a moment wondering if he had been in an accident. But he couldn't remember. In fact, the last thing he could recall was being at Tropical Land with Ran and Sonoko.

He could hear voices in the distance. They were muffled, but there seemed to be at least two voices, both female. He lay there for a long moment just listening to the fuzzy streams of indistinct syllables as his thoughts drifted. He was on the verge of sinking back into the welcoming arms of sleep when he heard the sound of a door opening.

Then someone turned on the light. The world behind his eyelids blinked red, and his head throbbed. He let out an involuntary hiss of pain.

"Shinichi?"

It was Ran's voice. Her concerned query was followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. A moment later, the lights dimmed as Ran leaned over him, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead.

"Well, your fever's gone down," the girl said with some relief. "How are you feeling?"

"Head hurts," he mumbled, forcing his eyes open with an effort. He was lying in his room at the Mouri Detective Agency, he noted. But how had he gotten back here? And why did his voice sound funny? "What happened?"

"We thought you'd be able to tell us that," Sonoko's familiar voice remarked from somewhere near his door. "You ran off by yourself again at the amusement park. Then when we finally find you, you're like this. I mean seriously, how do you even find these kinds of messes to get into?"

"What are you talking about?" Shinichi asked, now thoroughly confused.

Ran turned her head, and he assumed she was trading speaking glances with the other girl. There was the sound of rummaging. Then Sonoko appeared over Ran's shoulder. She handed the brunette a hand mirror, which Ran in turn held up in front of Shinichi.

He didn't understand what he was seeing.

There was a child looking back at him out of the mirror. The boy had black hair and blue eyes just like Shinichi did. He had the same odd cowlick too. In fact, the longer Shinichi looked at the boy, the more he began to see himself in that face.

"What…" he started to say then stopped again. He swallowed with a throat that had gone abruptly dry. Taking a deep breath, he looked down at his hands, hoping to find that the mirror was some kind of bad joke. But the hands clutching his blankets—his hands—reflected what he'd seen in the mirror. They were the hands of a child. "But… How?"

"We don't know," Ran said before Sonoko could open her mouth. "We went looking for you when you didn't come back. By the time we found you, you were like this. Can you remember anything about what happened? Like what you were going to check on?"

Her last question caused something in Shinichi's memory to stir. "There were these two men," he said slowly, trying to focus even as his head continued to throb. "I thought they were kind of strange, so I followed them."

Sonoko let out a loud snort, but Ran shushed her.

"Go on," she said to Shinichi.

"They were meeting someone. It was this other man with a small dog in a carrier. It looked like some kind of exchange. They were saying something about a classified government registry." Shinichi's brows furrowed as he struggled to piece the memory back together. "There was also something about a breakthrough and some kind of demonstration, but I didn't catch what kind. I was going to take pictures of the three of them for later identification, but that was when I realized that there were only two people left. Then someone hit me." He trailed off, grimacing. He should have been more careful.

"Is there anything else?" asked Ran.

"Well, I… I think there was an amulet."

"What, you mean those things people store spells in?" Sonoko asked.

"Maybe. It was kind of similar, but the design was weird… And there was something like a Curse Mark."

"What, on the amulet?"

"I can't remember," he replied, frustrated. "I just…have this picture in my head. It was glowing, and it was definitely a Curse Mark." He also remembered a sudden, excruciating pain. It had felt as though he was being burned alive from the inside out—like his very bones were melting and a giant's hand was crushing his heart and squeezing the air out of his lungs. But he didn't think the girls needed to hear that. "They also said something about not leaving a body."

Ran drew in a sharp breath. "Then they were trying to kill you."

"Er, well…" He rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling strangely guilty at the expression on Ran's face as though it were somehow his fault that someone had tried to murder him. Having people worry about him always made him feel uncomfortable. "I guess it's a good thing I'm cursed then…?"

Ran was not amused.


	5. The Archmage's Son

It was a nice park. Nakamori Aoko could admit that much. It was very green and always peaceful, and she supposed that that was why a particular wayward friend of hers liked it so much. The problem was that it was all the way in Beika. And because it was in Beika, she simply couldn't find it in herself to appreciate it the way she knew she would have if it was just a little closer to home.

This was not because she had anything against the Beika district. It was just that the aforementioned friend of hers had a tendency to disappear into this park just before such important events as Mage Certification tests (with his phone off, no less), which meant that Aoko, being the responsible and thoughtful friend that she was, had to rush across the city to find and remind him not to be late. As it was, she had come to associate Beika Park with a feeling of frazzled irritation. Of course, she didn't strictly have to travel all this way to fetch Kaito. It wasn't like he'd asked her to, and she knew he wasn't the sort to forget appointments. It was just that, for all that the long trip often annoyed her, she couldn't help but be curious too. Every time she came to this place, she would look around and wonder what exactly made it so special. Ekoda had parks every bit as beautiful and tranquil as this one. If anything, she was of the opinion that the park near her and Kaito's homes, with its grand old clock tower, was much more impressive.

Shelving the mystery of the park for later, Aoko marched across the sun-drenched lawns towards the small lake she had come to know so well from all the trips she had taken before to this very place. On its grassy shore stood what was perhaps the largest tree in the park. Planting her hands on her hips, she glared up into the tangled web of branches. There, sitting on one of the thickest of those branches with his back against the tree trunk and one leg dangling casually over the side, was one Kuroba Kaito.

Talk about looking like he didn't have a care in the world. He was the only person Aoko knew who could look like that right before a major exam. It was both one of his best and most frustrating qualities, she mused.

"Hey, Bakaito! Are you asleep up there?" she shouted up at him.

"Yes," he called back without moving.

Aoko rolled her eyes. "You remember you have to sign in for your exam an hour before the actual event, right? If you don't start heading over there now, you're going to be late. They dock points for tardiness. It'd be a pretty pathetic way to fail."

The young man who had professed to be sleeping let out a hearty laugh. Straightening, he swung both legs over the side of his perch and dropped. If Aoko hadn't seen him do this countless times, she might have screamed. After all, the tree was a tall one, and that was not a drop to be taken lightly. But by now she knew better than to worry.

As expected, Kaito landed perfectly. Rising from his crouched position, he dusted himself off and made a show of straightening out his clothes. Aoko looked him up and down, noting that he had at least dressed nicely for the occasion. That was a good sign. For all his nonchalance, she knew that he did indeed care very strongly about performing well on these upcoming tests. After all, his goal was to become a mage even greater than his father one day. And Kaito took his goals seriously even if he didn't often act it.

"So do I pass muster, oh great Ahoko?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.

She sniffed. "You'll do."

"Then I guess we'd better go." Despite his words, Kaito turned for one last long look out across the mirror bright waters.

Aoko studied his profile, noting the distant look in his eyes, and she wondered again what it was that kept drawing her friend back to this place.

Unable to quell her curiosity any longer, she asked, "Why do you always come here before important events?"

"For good luck?" Kaito suggested offhandedly.

Aoko looked dubious. "Luck? You? If there's anyone who doesn't need more luck, it's you."

Kaito laughed. "Then maybe I just like the view."

Aoko bit back a sigh. And this was why she always regretted it when she asked him about this park. He always answered with something different, and she honestly couldn't tell if he meant any of what he said. Sometimes she wondered if Kaito even knew how to give a straight answer.

"If you don't want to tell me, you can just say so. Anyway, I'm going to head back now. Are you coming or not?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Kaito pivoted and jogged after her, catching up in a few long strides. "Honestly Aoko, you're always so grumpy. You should be careful about that. It's bad for your health."

"I wouldn't be grumpy if you weren't so exasperating," she shot back. But then she smiled, and Kaito grinned, and their was laughter in their eyes as they proceeded out of the park.

"How did you get here?" Kaito asked.

"I took the train. What about you?"

"My Sky Cycle's parked just outside the park. I can give you a ride, if you want. I brought an extra helmet with me."

"I guess that would be faster," Aoko said after only a brief hesitation. Sky Cycles were a new invention not yet available to the public. Modeled off of motorcycles, these vehicles had to be operated by users of Sky Magic. But, when properly handled, they could travel over almost any surface from roads to waterways to open air if the magic of the user was strong enough. Or at least that was what the creators had claimed. Aoko had known that Kaito had recently received a prototype Sky Cycle as part of a beta testing program, but she had yet to see it. The thought of actually getting to ride on it was actually kind of thrilling.

"Is it safe though?" she asked. "Are you even allowed to have passengers? I mean, it's still in the testing stage, right?"

"Yes, it's still in the testing stage, but I've been using it for four months now, and I can vouch that it's safe. I was told last week that testers are now allowed to take passengers—only one at a time, naturally. So we can make sure it works all right with the extra weight."

Aoko frowned. "Is that supposed to make me feel safe? Because it kind of makes me want to take the train."

Kaito laughed. "Come on, don't you trust me to protect you?"

"Depends on what from," she muttered, but she accepted the helmet that he handed to her and climbed onto the cycle behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and waiting with bated breath.

Kaito slotted the key crystal into place then placed his hands on the handlebars, channeling his magic into the crystals there. There was a soft hum. The wheels began to turn, and suddenly they were off, soaring down the street so smoothly and so quickly that Aoko thought their wheels weren't even touching the ground. It was like flying, she thought. Honest to goodness flying!

It was enough to make Aoko wish that she had been born a Sky Mage too.

Seated before her, Kaito grinned into the wind.

X

It was a little crazy how fast things could change, Shinichi thought. In one weekend, he had gone from being a high school detective to an elementary school kid who would be enrolling in first grade. He had tried to protest that he could simply switch to homeschooling, but Kogoro hadn't been particularly enthusiastic about the work that that would cause for him. But it was an option Shinichi was determined to explore. However, in the meantime, he found himself being dropped off at the local elementary school by a Ran who looked torn between apologetic and amused and a Sonoko who just plain sniggered.

Thus followed the longest week of Shinichi's life. The mind numbing boredom of elementary school classes was nothing compared to the exhausting task of fending off curious little kids who didn't seem to understand the concepts of personal space or privacy. There were three in particular who just would not leave him alone. They had even followed him home.

Ran thought they were cute. Shinichi didn't understand it.

By the time the weekend rolled around, he could have cried from the relief.

"We can still tell the police what happened, you know," Ran said as they sat together on the train to Ekoda. "They could help."

"We don't have anything to go to the police with."

Ran leveled him with an incredulous stare. "They tried to murder you."

"We don't have any evidence of what happened, and I didn't get a good enough look at any of them to identify them."

"Uh, but just look at you. You didn't do this to yourself. Even if there's no way to find the culprits, the police might still be able to identify the spell those people used on you. I mean, spells that shrink people can't be common. If we knew that, we might be able to find a way to fix it."

"I'm guessing what happened to me was an accident. It's probably because of my curse."

"He has a point," Sonoko said, dropping into the empty seat across from Ran. "If there was a spell that could make people younger, it would be all over the news in no time. People would kill for spells like that. I bet if anyone found out about the little detective brat here, they'd cart him off to a research facility faster than you could count to three."

Ran shuddered. That was a singularly horrifying thought. Worse still, she could actually picture it happening. History was riddled with terrible tales of the crazy and often illegal things people had done in pursuit of eternal youth and beauty. Some of those tales weren't even that old. She vowed to herself then and there that no one she didn't trust a hundred percent would ever find out about Shinichi's condition from her. Or rather it should be Conan shouldn't it? Trust Shinichi to pick an alias like that. She'd almost laughed when he'd suggested it, but she had managed to suppress the urge. After all, he had enough to deal with already.

"But we can't do nothing," she murmured. She turned her gaze on Shinichi. She didn't for one moment believe that he was planning to just forget about what had happened and move on. "You're going to look for these people, aren't you?"

Shinichi flushed. "Uh, well, I mean—"

"Don't you dare deny it," she said warningly. "We're your friends, Shinichi. We can help you."

Shinichi looked down, gratitude for their support warring with shame that he had dragged them into yet another potentially dangerous situation. But there was no point dwelling on what could not be changed. What he could do, however, was put every ounce of energy and intellect that he had into making sure that no one got hurt as he worked to figure this bizarre mess out. To do that though, he needed information.

"Hello~!" Sonoko waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Detective Geek. Spill, or Ran here's going to karate chop you into next week."

Shinichi rolled his eyes, pushing her hand out of his face. "We have two leads," he said. "One is the Curse Mark I saw when they used their amulet. There is extensive documentation on Curse Marks from all around the world dating back quite a long time. If we can identify any part of the Mark, it may tell us more about the spell they cast on me."

"That makes sense," Ran agreed. "And the second lead?"

"One of those men had access to some kind of classified government information. More likely than not, that means he has some official standing. I didn't get a good look at his face, but I think I'd recognize his voice."

Sonoko snorted. "That's not a lead. What are you going to do, sit around outside government buildings and listen to people talk?"

Shinichi ignored her. "I think it would be easier to start with the Curse Mark archive at the main city library. We should also research how a Curse Mark might relate to an amulet. Curses aren't like spells that can be cast after all."

"Sounds boring."

"No one said you had to go," Shinichi said dryly.

The overhead speakers crackled, and a woman's voice announced that they had reached their destination. Sonoko was on her feet in an instant, all serious matters forgotten.

"Come on," she exclaimed. "I want to get good seats!"

Ran and Shinichi traded half amused, half exasperated looks before rising to follow their friend off the train.

X

The Level Seven Mage Certification Exams were being held in Ekoda's Minazuki Stadium. It was an enormous venue with seats for thousands, every one of which was filled well before the first examinee was to take the field. It was a mark of the event's popularity despite its nature as a test. It seemed an awfully noisy kind of setting for any kind of exam, Shinichi thought, but he supposed that it was all part of the challenge. If you could concentrate in this din, you could concentrate anywhere.

"The Level Seven Practicals have two parts," Ran said, reading over the program they had picked up on their way into the stadium. "The first is a free demonstration where the examinees have to perform at least ten spells of their choosing from the options listed in the exam guidelines. They don't include those in here, but they say you can look up a list on the Mage Certifications website. The second part is a problem solving test. The examinee will be confronted with a series of ten to twelve hypothetical situations, and he or she will have to deal with the problem using whatever spells he or she deems most suitable. The demonstration will be done first individually. The situation test will be carried out with multiple examinees at the same time. Exam groups are determined by random lottery."

"What about the demonstrations?" Sonoko demanded. "Is there a schedule?"

"Let me see." Ran skimmed over the rest of the brochure. "Oh, here it is. It looks like it's alphabetical. Every examinee will have five minutes. Wow. That's not a lot of time. They'd only have like half a minute for every spell."

"Casting speed must be part of the exam," said Shinichi. His own excitement grew as he studied the field below. It had been divided into four quadrants for the demonstration portion of the exams: a grassy field, a pool, a sandpit and a metal structure consisting of a series of platforms connected by ladders like part of a jungle gym. There were large boulders scattered throughout the sandpit and a picnic table on the grass next to several large logs. He was intrigued to note that there was even a live if small pine tree growing on one corner of the grassy quadrant. It must have been planted and raised by a high level Earth Mage just for this exam the same way the rest of the field had been constructed since the stadium was usually nothing more or less than your typical sports arena.

The large screen overlooking the field suddenly blinked on, displaying three names, the first of which was highlighted.

"They're starting," Sonoko said enthusiastically. Her words were lost in the cheers that rolled throughout the stadium. Far below them, a woman in her mid twenties jogged out onto the field.

The exams were officially underway.

It was magic on parade. They saw people call lightning down out of a clear sky and pull fire from thin air. They saw mages shape the metal jungle gym into a metal castle while others broke the boulders into perfect cubes to build their own small fortress that then melded into a seamless whole. One woman righted a fallen log then brought it to life, making it send roots down into the earth and spread branches up towards the sky until it had become a fully grown and vibrantly green tree casting a pleasant shade over the picnic table.

"I didn't even know that was possible with dead logs," Ran gasped, awed.

But then the name Kuroba Kaito came up on the screen, and Sonoko was leaping up in her chair with a shriek.

"That's him!" she cried out. "Archmage Toichi's son!"

As though her cry had been a signal, there was an explosion of lightning in the middle of the field that sent the entire stadium into a dead silence as every pair of eyes turned to the heart of the light where a young man materialized out of nowhere to stand in mid air nearly twenty feet above the stadium floor. Seeing that he had everyone's attention, he bowed. Then he snapped his fingers, and all the water in the pool below his feet suddenly rose in a cloud of hissing steam. It arched up and over his head, and, as it did so, it condensed, going straight from steam to solid ice in the shape of a dragon. The dragon spread its icy wings and roared, the sound so real and so powerful that it made the audience's seats rattle. Then the beast blew out a jet of fire before dissolving into steam again. Out of the steam came another dragon of pure flames, all orange and blue, with golden eyes and claws, which in turn breathed frost across the entirety of the field below.

The crowd was going wild. Not only was the performance spectacular to watch, but manipulating so many different elements at the same time was notoriously difficult. Shinichi could sympathize with their amazement, but his own mind had gone blank with shock of an entirely different nature.

That was Kaito.

He knew it was Kaito even though it had been eight years now since he had last seen him.

That was Kaito's messy hair and sharp, indigo eyes. That was Kaito's mischievous grin and confident stance. He was eight years older, a great deal taller, and his features sharper, but it was still the same Kaito who used to tease him and write riddles for him to solve.

The same Kaito who had been his first friend and given him the book that had served as his anchor all these years.

Seeing him here now, grinning that devil-may-care grin of his as he wove spectacle after spectacle for his enraptured audience, filled Shinichi with an odd mixture of sensations both joyous and painful. The greatest emotion—and the one that ended up eclipsing all the others, however, was relief. Kaito was obviously doing well. Knowing that allowed Shinichi to put all the other jumbled feelings to rest and simply be happy for his old friend.

It really was fitting too, he thought with some amusement, that Kaito would be one of the only high school students to take the Level Seven exams. If anything, Shinichi was surprised he hadn't taken them sooner, considering that many of the spells he had demonstrated for Shinichi back when Kaito had only been nine were already highly advanced magic.

Lost in his thoughts, Shinichi had missed half the five minute show, for Kaito was now taking his final bows—still standing in mid air. It was as the magician straightened from his bow that his indigo gaze met Shinichi's sapphire blues for just an instant. The moment passed so quickly that Shinichi wasn't even sure if Kaito had noticed him or just been looking in his general direction. But the moment was past, and Kaito had moved on again.

That one moment of eye contact, however, left Shinichi's heart beating a little too fast to be normal, though why it was doing so, he had no idea. Feeling confused and a little perturbed, he gave himself a shake. Kaito probably hadn't really seen him anyway. Even if he had, it was doubtful that Kaito would remember him. Even if Kaito recognized him as Shinichi grown up in his natural state, he would never associate this child with his old friend.

And it was better that way, Shinichi told himself. Kaito was a skilled and powerful Sky Mage with a promising career ahead of him in whatever field he chose to pursue. Better that Kaito stay away from Shinichi and his curse. It would be better for the magician's future and better for Shinichi's peace of mind.

But first, Shinichi still had a promise to keep.


	6. Bright Eyed

The moment had been like time travel.

He had looked into the audience and, for an instant, he had thought he'd seen Shinichi—his Shinichi from eight years ago. If anything, the boy had looked even younger than that. Which, naturally, meant it couldn't have been Shinichi at all, but the resemblance was so striking that the image of the boy remained seared into Kaito's mind.

Eight years ago, he had gone to Beika with his father when Kuroba Toichi had received a plea for help from a former student of his. He had ended up going to the local park instead of going with his father because Toichi had explained that the problem his student wanted help with was a very private one that couldn't be shared with just anyone. Kaito didn't think he was 'just anyone', but he understood that there were some issues that people had a right to keeping private. Granted, he still might have considered trying to eavesdrop (hey, he could keep secrets with the best of them, so what could it hurt?), but he knew that his father would know if he tried. So he'd saved himself the trouble and went to play in the park instead.

He remained glad to this day that he had made that decision because it was at Beika Park that he had met Shinichi.

Kaito had always made friends easily, but Kudo Shinichi had been special. He had been the first person his own age that Kaito had ever met who could actually keep up with him intellectually. The blue-eyed boy had been rather quiet and reserved at first, but, with some careful prodding from Kaito, he had begun to open up, and Kaito had discovered a soul who was not only intelligent but witty and thoughtful and almost ridiculously responsible for someone only eight years old. He cared a lot about things most people didn't start thinking about until they were a whole lot older, could spend hours on end doing nothing but reading, and had an incredibly cute blush that came rather easily to his face. But Kaito had also noticed a certain melancholy about the younger boy—perhaps a little loneliness and a touch of wistful resignation. The reason for that melancholy had been easy to guess when he considered the questions Shinichi had asked him on that first afternoon. Shinichi must have a Curse Mark. But since he hadn't shared that piece of knowledge with Kaito, the young magician had decided to keep his suspicions to himself. He had learned many things about Curse Marks and their bearers from his father, and he understood that the burden of such things was one that could only ever be borne by the people they were bestowed upon. And like with any serious problem, Shinichi would have to make the decision of whether to ask for help or not.

But not all of Shinichi's problems were tied to his curse, Kaito soon realized. A large part of it had to do with his enthusiastic but flaky parents and classmates who believed he considered himself to be better than them. Shinichi handled people who sneered at him based on their own biased assessments of his circumstances by simply ignoring them. This eventually made them go away, but it had given him a reputation among his peers of aloofness.

As someone who'd always enjoyed making people smile, Kaito had set about trying to cheer up his new friend. Since Shinichi liked mysteries, Kaito had started creating riddles and simple games just for the two of them, and he'd delighted in the joy that blossomed across Shinichi's face whenever he solved one of Kaito's riddles. What had started as a simple gesture evolved into a hobby of creating more and more elaborate mysteries then testing them against the observation and deduction skills of his new best friend.

Kaito had developed his own truly unique spell based on those games, and he had been looking forward to showing it off to Shinichi at another of their Beika Park dates.

Except Shinichi never showed up. In fact, Shinichi had disappeared completely.

After a whole month had passed without any sign of Shinichi, Kaito had gone to his father with a copy of the Curse Mark that Shinichi had drawn for him on a slip of paper to ask his father's opinion on what it might mean. Half of him had been afraid that something horrible had befallen his friend. He too had noticed upon reading the history that his mother had helped translate that the cursed rarely lived long lives. But he had never thought of what that might really mean until the thought hit him as he sat in the branches of their tree that Shinichi might have been in an accident or worse.

The lives of the cursed were fleeting and fragile, and the sudden understanding of that fact had left Kaito in a dreadful mood for weeks.

But then his father had told him that Kudo Shinichi was, in fact, the son of the student he had been going to see, and that it was Shinichi they had been discussing. He had told Kaito about Shinichi's Curse Mark and how his parents had decided that Shinichi should make the most of his next few years (before his curse really kicked in) by going abroad.

The news had both cheered and annoyed Kaito. He was glad that nothing terrible had happened to his friend, but he was annoyed that he had lost touch with the boy just as their friendship was really beginning to blossom. It wasn't fair, and why hadn't either of them thought to exchange contact information?

But it wasn't Kaito's habit to dwell on lost opportunities, so he'd stowed the memories of those pretty blue eyes away and moved on.

Still, he found himself drifting back to that park now and then until it became a ritual of sorts. He wasn't expecting to find Shinichi there or anything, though he'd be lying if he claimed that the hope hadn't crossed his mind. There was just something about the place and the memories it held for him that he found soothing even as it reminded him to never forget to cherish the present.

Now Kaito couldn't get the image of that little boy who resembled Shinichi far more than Kaito himself ever had out of his mind.

He shifted his weight to his other foot impatiently as the woman from the exam's administration finally concluded her longwinded praise of all the examinees' hard work and began explaining that it would be at least a week before they got their results. Then she went on to explain how their performance in each practical exam segment would be evaluated and where they could go if they had any questions regarding either their evaluations, their results, or possible retakes for those who did not pass. Since Kaito already knew all the procedures and was fully confident that he would pass anyway, he tuned her out.

The mini Shinichi lookalike had been seated with two teenaged girls. The taller of the two had looked eerily like Aoko in the same way that Kaito had looked like Shinichi, but other than that she had been unremarkable. The other girl, however Kaito had recognized. Suzuki Sonoko was the second daughter of the head of the Suzuki family. The body language of the three had told Kaito that they had attended the event together.

Kaito turned that piece of knowledge over in his mind for a moment then grinned as he began hatching a plan that would help him sate his curiosity.

X

Shinichi ran a hand over the embossed, leather covers of the large tome and felt a lump rise in his throat. This book had come to mean more to him than anything else he had ever owned—not because it was a valuable book, though that it certainly was, but because its stories gave him a sense of pride if not pleasure in being the bearer of a Mark. It had taught him that, whether he was doomed or not, his life still mattered. He had everything he needed to make something of himself—to make the world a little brighter and a little better with whatever time he had.

In that way, he was just like everyone else in the world, whether they chose to see him that way or not.

The things he had learned from this book would stay with him for the rest of his life whether the book itself did or not. And really, it had never belonged to him. It was Kaito's, and Shinichi had promised to return it one day. It was time to fulfill that promise. The question was how.

Now that he knew exactly who Kaito was, it would be easy to find an address and mail the book back, but he balked at the idea. What if the book was lost or damaged on the way? Besides, sending it through the mail just wouldn't feel right. He also needed to tell Kaito how much the book had meant to him and thank him for lending it to Shinichi all those years ago. He should probably apologize for leaving without a word like that too.

He couldn't go see Kaito though. For one, Kaito might not remember him, and that would be awkward. For another, Shinichi was currently a little child again, which would only make things both more confusing and more complicated. And he'd already decided he didn't want to get Kaito involved in his problems.

Maybe he should write Kaito a letter. He could place the letter in the book and then, well, he could make a the trip to deliver it by hand. If he ran into Kaito, he could say he was a cousin of Shinichi's. That was already what he and the Mouris were telling everyone about 'Conan' anyway.

Plans made, he hopped off his bed and laid the book gently on the corner of the desk before retrieving a sheaf of blank paper. Then he climbed into his desk chair, picked up a pen, and stared at the paper's plain, unblemished face. Where should he even start?

There was a knock at his bedroom door. "Shin—uh, Conan-kun?"

"What is it?" Shinichi called back. He was still just as unused to answering to his alias as Ran was to addressing him with it, but they were both working on it.

The door opened, and the brunette poked her head inside. "I just finished my homework for today. So, if you're feeling up to it, we can head over to the central library for another look at those archives."

Shinichi cast a glance at the blank paper on his desk then set down his pen. "All right."

They bid Kogoro a quick farewell, promised to be home in time to make dinner, and left the agency.

"You know," Ran said as they made their way to the bus stop. "I've been wondering if you wanted to try visiting that Choice Foundation place."

Shinichi shot her a startled look. "What?"

"I saw the flyer in your bag when I borrowed your math textbook," Ran admitted. "So I looked them up. They're supposed to be a nonprofit organization dedicated to studying Curse Marks and how to remove them. From what I could tell, they're not very large, but they have been active for quite some time, and they have really high end facilities and a lot of experts on staff. So I was thinking, maybe we should bring that Mark you saw to them and see if they recognize it. It would be a lot faster."

Shinichi frowned. "I guess we can consider it if we can't find anything ourselves."

"Why not just ask first?"

"If they're researchers, they'll ask a lot of questions," Shinichi reasoned. "And the more people we tell things to, the more likely the information we put out could find its way back to those men. I'd like to know more about any research group before taking that kind of risk."

"Oh." Ran considered it then sighed. "And we wouldn't want Sonoko's prediction coming true either."

Shinichi winced. That had been one aspect of his situation that he had been trying not to think about. The tales of mankind's greed for the secret of eternal life and youth were full of atrocities too awful to contemplate.

"The library it is then," Ran sighed. Though she was a good student, she wasn't really a bookish sort of person. Research was not something she either enjoyed or was particularly good at. But she felt she owed her surrogate brother all the help she could give him if only because she knew that he would never ask her to do anything for him at all if she didn't insist that he couldn't carry all his burdens alone.

The central library was an enormous building owned and run by the city. It had extensive archives of magical texts, lore, history, and anything else you could think of that might relate to such fields. Among its many treasures were multiple Curse Mark records.

These records came mostly in the form of the eighty two volumes of the Curse Mark Encyclopedia. Tasks, blessings, and curses were recorded separately because the combinations varied far too much for it to make sense to record every Mark as a whole. The problem was that there were a lot of Marks that were still a mystery, and only identified Marks were included in the encyclopedia. The second major roadblock lay in the difficulty of locating any single Mark unless you knew what name it had been assigned. There were broad categories that Marks were placed in based on their properties, but that meant you had to know the properties in question or make your best guess. As it was, Shinichi had decided that the only way to ensure that he didn't accidentally skip over the Mark he was searching for was to check them all.

He had sketched the Mark he had seen in the pocket notebook he carried with him everywhere. Then he set about comparing it to each recorded Mark starting with the very first listing in volume one of the encyclopedia.

It was tedious work, but progress was much faster than most people would probably have expected. The encyclopedias had a clean and well organized layout, so it took only a few seconds to check his sketch against each Mark. When he came across a Mark that seemed similar, he would pause for a closer examination and to read upon its properties and history. If it seemed like it might be relevant, he copied the image into his notebook and jotted down a few notes about it before moving on.

So far, he had found only two possible matches, and neither of them sounded truly relevant. But he still had seventy seven books to go.

He wondered if Ran was having better luck. She had volunteered to read up on amulets.

Flipping through the last few pages of the volume he'd been perusing, Shinichi shut it and stretched. A glance at his watch showed that they would have to start heading home. Two books was pretty good progress though, so he wasn't too disappointed. Hopping off his seat, he returned the book to its slot on the shelves, silently lamenting the fact that the Curse Mark Encyclopedia couldn't be checked out. Then he went in search of Ran.

He found her in the library's coffee shop. Unlike the encyclopedias, the books she'd found on amulets could be checked out, and so she had opted to read them in the coffee shop where she could enjoy a cup of tea at the same time.

"Here," she said when she saw him, handing him a small to-go cup of iced coffee, which he accepted with a grateful smile. "I just got a call from Sonoko. She's inviting us to a party."

"A party?" Shinichi repeated, confused. "For what?" He couldn't think of any special occasions that might be coming up that would warrant a party.

"It's being organized jointly by Archmage Toichi's family and the Tokyo Magical Advancement Association to congratulate all the Tokyo applicants who passed any of the exams from Seventh Level on up to Master. It's going to be a huge event! She's really excited. The details aren't out yet, but Sonoko's already planning her outfit. She wants us all to go shopping together after school next Tuesday. There are some major sales going on at the mall that day."

"Wait, wait," Shinichi said, holding up his hands. "None of us participated in any of those exams. Why are we invited?"

"Oh that. The Suzukis own the venue where they're planning to hold the party. So they're honorary guests."

"And we're the hangers on…"

Ran laughed. "I'm sure it'll be fun."

Shinichi had never found parties of any kind to be fun, and he was about to say so when he remembered that the man hosting the party was Kaito's father. And Kaito was one of the aforementioned applicants who had passed his exams (because there was no doubt in Shinichi's mind that Kaito would have passed with top marks). That meant Kaito would be at the party.

His heart skipped beat. If he went to this party, he might actually see Kaito again. Face to face… His stomach flip-flopped in a most disconcerting way, and he was momentarily swamped with a peculiar mixture of nausea and giddiness. What was wrong with him?

"Conan-kun?" Ran asked, leaning forward as a frown crept onto her face. "Are you feeling all right? You look pale."

Shinichi pulled himself together with an effort and forced a smile. "It's nothing. I'm fine. Just a little tired. So…are you ready to head back?"

Ran looked up at the clock on the coffee shop wall and promptly leapt to her feet. "I didn't realize it was so late!"

She stuffed her borrowed books into her bag and took her empty mug back to the counter.

Shinichi barely remembered the trip back to the Mouri Detective Agency, lost in a strange and inexplicable haze of nervousness, excitement, and dread. So lost in his own jumbled thoughts was he that he didn't even notice the small, blond child sitting on the top step outside the Mouri Detective Agency's front door until Ran addressed the girl.

"Miss, are you lost?" Ran asked, crouching down so that she could be at the child's eye level. The girl's clothes were dirty and a little torn, Ran noted with alarm. "Are you hurt?"

The girl shook her head and pulled her small, gray coat closer around herself. "I'm sorry if I'm in your way," she said in a calm but quiet voice. "I came here because I was told that this is where I might be able to find Kudo Shinichi. The detective."

Both Ran and Shinichi stiffened. The former cast a quick glance down at her surrogate brother before she cleared her throat.

"Actually, he left for America recently. He's spending some time with his parents there. But, if you need help, my father's a detective too. Would you like to come in and talk to him?"

The little girl looked at Ran for a long time, considering. Then she turned her disconcertingly piercing gaze on Shinichi. He found himself struggling not to shy away under her scrutiny. It felt like she was looking right through him. Who was this girl? And why was she looking for him?

With the questions whirling through his head, Shinichi wasn't sure if he was relieved or dismayed when the girl turned back to Ran and said that she would indeed like to see Mouri Kogoro.


	7. Lucky Misfortun es

The cheers of a televised crowd and Kogoro's manic hollering crashed over them the instant Ran pushed open the Mouri Agency door. The man was jumping up and down in front of the television as, on screen, a herd of racehorses galloped down the tracks. The trio of newcomers performed a collective cringe at the noise. To no one's surprise, the man didn't notice their arrival at all.

"Dad? Dad!" Ran shouted over the din. "You have a client!"

She had to repeat herself twice more before the lanky man finally took note. He pivoted about with a befuddled expression, one arm still upraised. One look into his eyes told Ran and Shinichi that he was more than a little inebriated.

"Oh Dad," Ran sighed in mixed exasperation and embarrassment. "I'm really sorry about this. Just wait here a moment, all right?" she said apologetically to their guest before grabbing her father and dragging him into the kitchen. Shinichi could hear her scolding the man in hushed tones beneath the sound of running water.

"You can sit anywhere," he told their guest, gesturing to the couches as he moved to turn off the television. The sudden cessation of noise was almost a physical shock.

The little girl perched on the edge of one of the couch seats with her hands folded primly on her knees. She never took her eyes off Shinichi as he climbed onto the couch opposite her. He noted again the odd intensity of her stare.

Shifting uneasily in his seat, he cleared his throat. But she spoke before he could utter a word.

"You're Kudo Shinichi, aren't you?"

Shinichi sat there with his mouth open for several seconds before he forced a nervous and extremely unconvincing laugh. "I guess you noticed that we look alike. Ran-neechan says it's really amazing. She says I look just like Shinichi-niichan did when he was my age."

The corners of the girl's lips twitched upward. It was a peculiar smile—like she wasn't used to making such expressions and wasn't sure how to smile but was too amused not to make the attempt. "No. I wasn't talking about you resembling Kudo. I meant that that is who you are."

"My name is Edogawa Conan," he corrected her, struggling to keep his anxiety hidden behind a façade of childish ignorance. "I'm Shinichi-niichan's cousin. I came here because I was hoping I'd be able to learn some more about being a detective from him and Uncle Kogoro, but, when I got here, Shinichi-niichan had already left for America. But the Mouris are letting me stay here while he's away since they have the room."

"I suppose that's as good a cover story as any," the little girl murmured, tone still calm and beliefs unshaken. "But it will only be a matter of time before they realize the truth."

Shinichi opened his mouth then shut it again. Who was this girl? The way she talked and her certainty that he was Kudo Shinichi… It was almost as though…

"Are you…" he started then stopped, not sure how to phrase the question without giving himself away. As it turned out, his concerns were wasted.

"Like you?" the girl finished for him. "Indeed I am. In more ways than one, I expect."

The two 'children' sat regarding one another in a tense silence as Shinichi digested the odd girl's words and tried to decide how he was supposed to respond. She didn't seem to be here to hurt him or the Mouris, but she knew too much to just be another victim of circumstance like he had been. After all, a mere fellow victim would have no reason to even suspect that there was someone else like her or him out there. He certainly hadn't considered the possibility as he had assumed that the only reason he was alive now was that his Curse Mark had saved him. That suggested that this girl must be connected to the men who had assaulted him in some way.

Shinichi's thoughts were still whirling when Ran returned with a tray of teacups and a steaming pot of tea. She set the tray down then looked from one child to the other and back.

She frowned. "What's going on here?"

Later, Shinichi would look back on that moment and marvel at the courage that it must have taken for the stranger to make the decision she made—to take that leap of faith and put her trust in a detective she knew only by reputation and his surrogate family, who she knew nothing about at all.

She sat there, small shoulders squared and face serene as she spoke, "My name is Miyano Shiho, and I am eighteen years old. I am here because I need your help—and because you need mine."

X

They talked all the way through the night and well into the morning.

Shiho, it turned out, was indeed connected to the men Shinichi had seen at the amusement park. She had been both a researcher and a research subject at the Choice Foundation where her parents, both doctors, had worked as medical researchers up until they had died in a freak accident, leaving her a ward of the Foundation.

"We were thinking about visiting them," Ran gasped at the news.

The small girl smiled a very thin smile. "It's a good thing you didn't."

The Choice Foundation, she explained, was merely the shiny front for a much darker nest of ambitions. It was true that they were dedicated to studying Curse Marks, but though their research did involve studying ways to alter curses, they were not doing so out of some altruistic desire to help people.

"Curse Marks contain powerful magic," Shiho said, eyes dark with memories. "Magic that they want to control." Rolling the sleeve of her slightly tattered sweater up as far as it would go, she showed them a dark blue birthmark on her upper arm just below the shoulder. They all recognized the familiar interlocked rings of a Curse Mark, but what made Shinichi draw in a sharp breath was that he recognized this Mark. It was the same one that had burned blue in his mind that evening when those men had tried to kill him.

"My blessing allows me to turn back my own biological clock," Shiho said, her matter-of-fact tone belying the astounding nature of her revelations. "However, my curse is that I have one hundred years to use—that includes the time that passes in the ordinary course of life. By turning my own clock back by ten years now and adding on the time I've used before that, I have used up twenty nine so far. Once I have used all one hundred years, I will die no matter what my age or physical condition at the time. Of course, that's assuming I don't get killed before that. The Foundation was very interested in my blessing. They thought it might hold the key to eternal youth."

"But you just said—" Ran started only to be cut off by a raised hand.

"Not for me. But they thought they could use my blessing to stay young."

"What do you mean by use your blessing?" Shinichi asked. Curse Marks weren't just some form of spell, after all. They were not things that could be learned or emulated. Or so he had been taught.

Apparently, the Foundation had had other ideas. The Curse Mark and its powers were tied to the particular people who bore them, true, but, when they exerted their curses or blessings, magic was indeed involved. And since that was the case, those energies could be studied, analyzed, and maybe even duplicated.

"Most of their attempts were complete failures," Shiho said with clear contempt. "But they recently had a breakthrough. They found a way to use some of a Curse Marked person's blood to create an amulet that can then be used to exercise that person's curse or blessing."

Shinichi inhaled sharply, trying not to let the horrified disgust he felt at the news show on his face. "They use blood?"

The girl shrugged. "They tried hair first since it's easy to collect surreptitiously, but that didn't work. Now they collect blood samples under the guise of medical research and basic health analysis. It's not a harmful process, though I suppose it sounds grizzly. Most of their subjects believe they're just getting normal blood tests."

"So you're saying that all they need to create Curse Mark amulets is a blood sample from a cursed person?"

"Technically. Though the amulets lose their power if the source person passes away as every Curse Mark is intimately tied to its bearer."

But a magical breakthrough or not, the curse amulets were still unreliable and, it seemed, uncontrollable. What, for Shiho, was the power to turn her physical clock backward to whatever point she chose, became a deadly regression when used on anyone else that simply turned their bodies back in time all the way until they ceased to exist. So instead of a tool for capturing eternal youth, the Foundation had created the perfect spell for assassinations—something that they were already taking advantage of, though they were taking care not to overplay their hand lest it draw attention.

"But what they really want is true immortality," the little girl said, letting her sleeve slide back down to cover the Mark of her fate. "You were lucky that you met them when you did."

"What do you mean?"

"They recently acquired data from the government's registries on all Japanese citizens who carry Curse Marks. I believe you saw the man who provided it. He's one of the Foundation's financial backers, and he was demanding proof that their research was progressing in exchange for the registry information. Anyway, your information was in there too along with the image of your Mark. I recognized the Blessing of the Cat and guessed that you had likely survived."

Shinichi's blood ran cold. "So they know too."

The girl's lips quirked into a sardonic smile. "Don't worry. I wiped your information from the database before I left. Your blessing is one they would love to get their hands on. If they'd known you had it when they met you, they would have taken you captive instead of using you to demonstrate the power of the amulets they'd created."

Apparently, Shinichi had the dubious honor of being one of only two human subjects that the regression amulet had been tested on (it seemed his curse had saved not only his life that night but also the life of an innocent dog). That being said, the men who had used it on him had given the Foundation researchers his description and a report of what they had witnessed of its effects after the fact, which was how Shiho had connected the dots. He had also been lucky that the three men had stayed only long enough to see that the regression was indeed occurring before fleeing the scene for fear of being spotted by some passing teenagers. Luckier still, she told him, his attackers hadn't actually known who he was, though she warned him that they may make the connection at some point even without the information she had deleted from their databases.

It was a lot to take in. Shiho had brought them the answers to many of the questions they had been struggling to solve, but she had also brought with her an entirely new slew of questions and problems.

"You said you needed our help though," Shinichi said. "What exactly did you want our help for?"

A shadow fell over Shiho's face as she looked down into her teacup. For the first time since she had arrived at their doorstep, she appeared uncertain and small. "I…need somewhere to hide."

"From the Foundation?" asked Ran.

The younger girl nodded. "As I told you earlier, my parents were medical researchers at the Choice Foundation for as far back as I can remember. I grew up there, and I followed in their footsteps. As I'm sure you know, people with Curse Marks wield unusual magical abilities. Mine allows me to do things like temporarily suspend a living creature in time and to analyze their physical status. I knew I could do a lot as a medical professional, and I hoped to explore more ways in which I could use my abilities to advance medicine and healthcare. But I realized that the people in charge of the Foundation don't really care about those sorts of things. Their interest in medicine is entirely selfish, and if they find what they want, they will use it only to advance themselves. That was not the kind of work I wanted to be part of—that's not the kind of use I want my research to be put to. So I left. But they want the blessing that comes with my Curse Mark, so they'll come looking for me."

"Why didn't you go to the police though?" asked Ran. "Wouldn't they be much more capable of protecting you? I mean, Dad's a detective, but Shinichi and I are just high school students."

"I came to you because you would know my story was true. You have experienced a part of it yourself. And I was fairly certain that you would not be tempted by the promises that the Foundation uses to entice people into its clutches."

Her points were sensible, and neither Ran nor Shinichi were the sort to turn away an earnest plea for help (Kogoro voiced no opinions on the matter because he had fallen asleep mere minutes into Shiho's story and now lay snoring draped over his desk). With her father out cold, Ran was the master of the house, so she declared that Shiho could stay for the time being. She could bunk in Ran's room for now, though they would all have to put their heads together about a plausible story to tell the neighbors. It would have to be a temporary arrangement though because, as Shiho herself pointed out, she would not be able to conduct any research while under the same roof as Mouri Kogoro, whose Curse Mark was one that the Foundation wanted very much to stay away from.

"I don't know if I can reverse what they did to you," she told Shinichi. "But I will try if you want me to."

He'd returned her serious gaze with a lopsided smile of his own and shrugged. "I would appreciate it. I wasn't really looking forward to repeating my entire school career. But it's all right if you can't. We'll help you either way. Though, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear more about the Foundation when you feel up to it."

She looked at him quizzically. "What for?"

"Well, you said I was the second human they tested your amulets on."

"That's right. The first was Tachibana Teuki."

Shinichi had heard that name before. "He was that government official who went missing. The one that wanted to ban all Curse Mark related research."

Shiho nodded. "The Foundation found him to be inconvenient."

"So when he disappeared…"

"They used the first amulet on him. After the one they used on you, they should have five more. Now that I'm not with them, they will be more careful when and on who they use the rest, I suspect."

"That's why we need to learn more," Shinichi said. "They've already killed and might do it again. They're trying to achieve something that could throw the entire world out of order. It would be irresponsible of us to just let them go on doing whatever it is they're doing since we know what they're hiding behind the scenes."

Shiho studied him for a long moment before the corners of her lips quirked up into a sardonic smile. "I see. Well, I will tell you what I can. But it will have to wait for when we have more time. It's a very long story."

**Author's Note:**

> A.N: This is another of the stories I've had lying around that I'm now trying to finish. Technically, it's part of a set of fics I wanted to write that are loosely based on fairytales. I'll explain which it was at the end, but big thumbs up if you can guess which one it is before that. :)
> 
> Anyhow! Like a lot of my stories, it's turning out somewhat longer than I expected, but I have most of it outlined so updates should be fairly regular (about once every two weeks unless I say otherwise). I will try to update this here as I update on FF.Net.
> 
> In the meantime, I will continue to re-post more of my completed stories here once I've reread them. I hope you'll take a look. ^_^
> 
> If you're reading any of my really long, ongoing KaiShin stories on FF.Net [[Sky Colored Eyes](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10326662/1/Sky-Colored-Eyes), [The Show Goes On](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9543676/1/The-Show-Goes-On), or [The Travelers Chronicles](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6544734/1/The-Travelers-Chronicles)], I'm sorry about the slow progress, but I am still working on them.
> 
> I wish you all a happy holiday. Thanks for reading. Take care and stay safe!


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